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The  art  of  preaching 


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THE  ART  OF  PREACHING 


BY 

CHARLES  REYNOLDS  BROWN 

DEAN    OF    THE    DIVINITY    SCHOOL,    YALE   UNIVERSITY 


THE    FORTY-EIGHTH    SERIES 

OF  LYMAN  BEECHER  LECTURES  ON  PREACHING 

IN   YALE   UNIVERSITY 


THE  MACMILLAN  COMPANY 
1922 

All  rights  reserved 


Copyright,  1922, 

bt  the  macmillan  company 


Set  up  and  electrotyped.     Published  November,  1922. 


VSVaiSD  IN  THE  UNITED  STATES  OF  AMEBIOA 


To 
Geoege  a.  Gordon 

Whose  Preaching  Kindled  My  Own  Heart  with 
Fresh  Impulse  During  My  Three  Years  in  the 
Seminary;  Who  Has  Nobly  Maintained  the  In- 
tellectual Dignity  of  the  Ministry  in  Times  of 
Stress;  Who  for  Well-nigh  Forty  Years  Has 
Made  the  Pulpit  of  the  Old  South  Church, 
Boston,  a  Place  of  Power  and  of  Spiritual 
Impartation,  I  Dedicate  This  Book  in  Grateful 
'Appreciation. 


FOREWORD 

When  my  honored  colleagues  in  the  Faculty  of  the 
Yale  Divinity  School  first  asked  me  to  give  the  Lyman 
Beecher  Lectures  for  the  year  1922-23  I  declined  their 
generous  invitation.  I  did  this  on  the  ground  that  I  had 
already  given  a  course  of  Lyman  Beecher  Lectures  sixteen 
years  ago  on  "The  Social  Message  of  the  Modem  Pulpit ;" 
and  for  the  further  reason  that  it  seemed  to  me  inap- 
propriate for  one  of  our  own  Faculty  to  perform  this 
office  on  the  occasion  of  the  celebration  of  the  One  Hun- 
dredth Anniversary  of  the  founding  of  the  School.  These 
objections  however  did  not  appear  to  them  important,  and 
when  the  invitation  was  cordially  renewed  two  months 
later  it  seemed  best  for  me  to  undertake  this  service. 

We  have  had  in  recent  years  several  notable  Courses 
of  Lyman  Beecher  Lectures  discussing  the  relation  of  the 
pulpit  to  the  Great  War  and  to  the  vast  and  intricate 
problems  which  it  created.  Dr.  John  Kelman  lectured 
on  "The  War  and  Preaching;"  Dr.  Henry  Sloane  Coffin 
considered  the  issues  involved  "In  a  Day  of  Social  Re- 
building." Dr.  William  P.  Merrill  considered  "The 
Freedom  of  the  Preacher"  as  affected  by  recent  develop- 
ments. We  have  had  other  courses  dealing  particularly 
with  the  theological,  the  educational,  the  social  phases  of 
the  minister's  vocation  in  these  grave  times  upon  which 
we  have  fallen. 


viii  FOREWOED 

We  have  not  had  for  thirty  years  a  series  of  Lyman 
Beecher  Lectures  dealing  directly  with  the  technique  of 
preaching.  It  has  seemed  fitting  therefore  that  as  a 
teacher  of  homiletics  and  as  one  whose  main  office  for 
many  years  has  been  that  of  preaching,  I  should  take  up 
in  a  more  intimate  way  the  making  of  a  sermon. 

I  have  not  attempted  anything  so  ambitious  as  a 
thoroughgoing  treatise  on  homiletics.  This  book  contains 
a  series  of  lectures  filled  mainly  with  practical  sugges- 
tions as  to  "the  art  of  preaching."  I  have  retained  the 
form  of  direct  personal  address  as  best  suited  to  the  pur- 
pose in  mind.  The  expressions  which  have  come  from 
the  students  who  heard  the  lectures  have  encouraged  me 
to  hope  that  these  words  may  have  value  for  some  of  my 
brother  ministers  in  active  service  who  are  sharing  in 
the  heat  and  burden  of  a  day  made  difficult  to  all  of  us 
as  preachers  by  the  tense  and  troubled  conditions  of  our 
modern  life. 

The  reluctance  of  multitudes  of  thoughtful  people  to 
"sit  under  our  preaching"  after  the  manner  of  their  more 
patient  forefathers,  becomes  a  kind  of  challenge  to  do  our 
bit  in  a  more  interesting  and  a  more  effective  way.  How 
difficult  a  task  it  is  I  have  learned  full  well  by  oft- 
re23eated,  humbling  experiences.  Yet  in  the  face  of 
everything,  I  still  believe  with  all  my  heart  (as  I  believed 
thirty-three  years  ago  when  I  was  first  ordained)  that 
to  preach  the  Gospel  of  the  Lord  Jesus  Christ  is  the 
highest  office  and  the  most  alluring  interest  to  which  any 
human  being  can  be  called. 

Chas.  R.  Bkown. 

Yale  University, 
October  1,  1922. 


CONTENTS 

FAOa 

I     The  Significance  of  the  Sermon  .        .  1 

II     The  Basis  of  the  Sermon        ...  32 

III  The  Content  of  the  Sermon          .        .  62 

IV  The  Measure  of  the  Sermon  ...  94 
V     The  Lighter  Elements  of  the  Sermon  123 

VI     The  Delivery  of  the  Sermon  .        .        .  155^ 

VII     The  Setting  of  the  Sermon   .        .        •  188 

VIII     The  Soul  of  the  Sermon         .        .        •  222 


ix 


THE  ART  OF  PREACHING 


THE   SIGNirtCANCE   OF   THE   SEEMON 

THE  poor  sermon  is  everywhere  spoken  against. 
"Dull  as  a  sermon !"  "Prosy  as  a  preacher !"  "He 
has  the  homiletic  habit!"  "Whatever  you  do, 
don't  preach !"  "His  book  is  as  lifeless  as  an  old  volume 
of  sermons." 

In  these  familiar  phrases,  caught  up  at  random  from 
the  swiftly  flowing  currents  of  popular  speech,  we  find  the 
common  appraisal  set  upon  the  sermon.  It  is  a  dull  day 
when  some  light-hearted  newspaper  man  does  not  make 
merry  over  the  unpopularity  and  the  futility  of  the  un- 
happy sermon.  In  many  a  quarter  the  conventional  ser- 
mon has  fallen  so  low  that  none  shall  count  himself  so 
poor  as  to  do  it  reverence. 

Yet  in  the  very  teeth  of  this  easy  and  widespread  de- 
traction of  that  form  of  address,  I  am  here  to  maintain 
against  all  comers  that  the  sermon  is  by  right,  and  may 
well  be  in  fact,  the  most  august  expression  of  mind,  heart 
and  will  to  be  heard  anywhere  in  human  society.  I  would 
agree  most  heartily  with  the  estimate  placed  upon  it  by 
one  who  was  himself  possessed  of  fine  literary  skill,  by  one 
whose  little  books  are  read  from  the  rising  of  the  sun  to 


2  THE  ART  OF  PREACHING 

the  going  down  of  the  same.  It  was  Ian  Maclaren,  the 
author  of  "The  Bonnie  Brier  Bush,"  who  said,  "The  most 
critical  and  influential  event  in  the  religious  week  is  the 
sermon." 

In  the  preaching  of  a  real  sermon  the  whole  man  is 
acting  and  reacting  under  the  stimulus  offered  by  the 
spiritual  needs  of  a  body  of  people.  The  preacher's  face 
and  bearing,  his  voice  and  his  eye,  all  his  mental  faculties, 
— reason,  judgment,  insight,  imagination  and  the  rest, — 
all  his  spiritual  faculties,  sympathy,  aspiration,  high  re- 
solve, faith,  hope,  and  love — all  these  are  engaged  in  a 
concerted  movement  upon  the  minds  and  hearts  of  those 
listeners.  And  furthermore,  this  putting  forth  of  energy 
has  in  view  certain  high  spiritual  ends.  The  preacher  is 
intent  upon  manifesting  to  those  people  the  truth  in 
action,  in  terms  of  experience,  so  that  by  the  power  of  his 
message  they  may  be  lifted  to  higher  levels  of  being. 
And  the  very  fact  that  a  really  live  sermon  is  an  exercise 
of  this  sort  clothes  it  with  an  august  character. 
''"  The  high  office  of  the  sermon  is  the  creation,  the  nur- 
ture and  the  direction  of  Christian  impulse.  When  you 
undertake  to  preach  a  sermon  you  set  yourself  the  task 
of  convincing  the  judgment,  of  kindling  the  imagination, 
of  moving  the  feelings,  and  of  giving  such  a  powerful 
impulse  to  the  will  that  this  finer  quality  of  being  may 
find  expression  in  finer  forms  of  action.  And  we  know 
from  experience  that  in  securing  this  high  end  the  divine 
energy  operates  habitually  and  most  powerfully  through 
those  vital  truths  which  bear  upon  the  development  of 
spiritual  life.  The  sermon  embodying  in  living  form 
some   important   portion  of  this   truth   is   therefore   de- 


THE  SIGNIFICANCE  OF  THE  SERMON         3 

signed  to  make  men  feel,  and  feel  so  deeply  that  they  will 
resolve.  'It  is  designed  to  make  men  resolve  and  resolve 
so  strongly  that  they  will  act."  And  the  impulse  which 
thus  issues  in  action  is  directly  begotten  under  the  com- 
pelling influence  of  the  truth  by  the  immediate  operation 
of  the  Spirit  of  Truth,  who  is  the  Holy  Spirit,  moving 
upon  the  moral  nature  of  the  hearer. 

We  sometimes  hear  light-hearted  and  light-headed  peo- 
ple who  have  not  learned  their  way  about,  remarking  in 
this  strain,  "We  do  not  want  our  preachers  to  give  us 
theology — let  them  give  us  the  simple  gospel."  But  ''the 
simple  gospel,"  as  men  sometimes  call  it,  not  knowing 
what  they  say,  is  brimful  of  theology.  It  is  a  presenta- 
tion of  truths,  deep,  broad,  high,  stretching  on  endlessly 
in  their  abiding  significance.  The  impulse  which  caused 
that  young  man  in  the  far  country  to  rise  and  move  out 
along  a  better  line  of  life  was  not  born  directly  of  his 
physical  discomfort.  He  was  "in  want  and  no  man  gave 
unto  him."  He  felt  a  keen  sense  of  disgust  arising  from 
his  disappointing  association  with  the  harlots  and  with 
the  hogs. 

But  the  compelling  impulse  which  brought  him  to  his 
feet  and  caused  him  to  orient  himself  aright  was  born  of 
his  vision  of  a  deeper  truth.  He  remembered  that  he 
had  a  father.  He  knew  that  in  that  father's  house,  far 
distant  though  it  was,  there  was  bread  enough  and  to 
spare.  He  knew  that  action  on  his  own  part  would  bring 
him  again  to  his  father's  house  with  an  open  chance  of 
adequate  support  in  the  position  at  least  of  a  hired 
servant.  And  the  compelling  force  of  those  considera- 
tions, all  of  them  having  to  do  with  realities  far  removed 


4  THE  ART  OF  PREACHING 

from  the  field  of  his  immediate  personal  experience, 
created  within  him  the  impulse  which  changed  his  whole 
career  and  set  him  in  that  line  of  advance  which  meant 
forgiveness,  restoration,  peace,  joy  and  honor. 

The  young  man  was  saved,  not  by  those  plain  ethical 
considerations  there  within  arm's  length  as  he  faced  the 
field  of  swine.  He  was  saved  in  a  word  "by  faith,"  by 
following  out  the  plain  implications  of  his  theology — by 
his  sense  of  a  Father's  undestroyed  interest  in  him  and 
by  that  whole  system  of  values  made  effective  by  the 
exercise  of  faith. 

"Ye  shall  know  the  truth,  and  the  truth  shall  make  you 
free."  It  is  both  a  promise  and  a  command,  a  privilege 
and  a  duty.  It  was  to  be  through  that  keen,  immediate 
sense  of  realities,  unseen  indeed  but  vital  and  eternal, 
that  men  were  to  be  freed  from  all  that  hurts  or  hinders 
life  in  the  high  advance  for  which  it  is  designed.  Where 
the  heart  of  some  individual  seems  devoid  of  Christian 
impulse  we  look  to  some  effective  presentation  of  the 
truth  in  compelling  form  to  work  the  needed  change. 
The  august  sanctions  which  attach  to  righteousness,  the 
deterrent  considerations  which  can  be  brought  to  buttress 
the  will  against  the  onslaughts  of  evil,  the  uncovering  of 
the  profounder  sources  of  motive  and  stimulus  bringing 
up  moral  supplies  from  a  deeper  level  of  being,  the  cloth- 
ing of  the  life  of  uprightness  and  of  service  with  all  its 
appropriate  glory  until  it  becomes  a  privilege,  interesting, 
dynamic,  resplendent, — all  these  aspects  of  religious  truth 
bear  directly  and  vitally  upon  the  unfolding  life  of  the 
spirit. 

You    will    recall    the    familiar    word    of    Augustine, 


THE  SIGNIFICANCE  OF  THE  SERMON         5 

"Veritas  pateat,  Veritas  placeat,  Veritas  moveat."  "Make 
the  truth  plain !  make  the  truth  pleasing !  make  the  truth 
moving." 

The  proper  nurture  of  that  Christian  impulse  thus 
created  as  it  shall  move  from  blade  to  ear  and  from  the 
ear  on  toward  the  full  com  issuing  at  last  in  a  rewarding 
harvest,  is  also  to  he  achieved  mainly  by  the  operation  of 
the  divine  spirit  through  those  forms  of  truth  which  relate 
themselves  in  vital  fashion  to  the  mental  and  spiritual 
processes  having  to  do  with  the  maturing  of  wholesome 
character. 

And  to  complete  the  cycle,  the  well  ordered  and  efficient 
^expression  of  that  Christian  impulse,  once  awakened  and 
then  genuinely  ripened,  in  terms  of  useful  service  makes 
a  similar  requisition  upon  the  values  attendant  upon  the 
presentation  of  the  truth  in  its  most  dynamic  form 
through  preaching.  (The  high  office  of  the  sermon  then 
is  to  aid  in  the  creation,  the  nurture  and  the  direction 
of  Christian  impulse.;> 

^Your  business  as  preachers  is  not  to  lecture  on  botany 
but  to  raise  flowers.^  Your  thorough  knowledge  of  botany 
will  help.  It  is  impossible  to  raise  successfully  a  full 
measure  of  the  finest  flowers  without  a  knowledge  of 
botany.  But  in  his  use  of  that  knowledge  the  eyes  of 
the  wise  gardener  are  constantly  upon  the  results  to  be 
achieved  in  the  realm  of  life.  You  in  like  manner  will 
employ  the  entire  results  of  your  study  in  philosophy,  in 
theology,  in  Biblical  criticism  and  in  church  history  to 
promote  religious  life  in  the  people  who  may  be  brought 
within  the  range  of  your  influence.  You  will  be  saying 
to  your  hearers,  "This  know  and  thou  shalt  live." 


6  THE  ART  OF  PREACHING 

In  my  own  ministry  I  have  steadily  emphasized  the 
value  of  personal  visitation.  It  was  my  custom  for  twenty 
odd  years  to  make  at  least  one  thousand  pastoral  calls  in 
every  twelve  months — this  was  the  minimum  with  as 
many  more  added  as  time  might  allow.  The  process  of 
using  up  the  gray  matter  of  the  brain  in  the  preparation 
of  sermons  should  in  my  judgment  be  paralleled  by  a 
similar  process  of  wearing  out  shoe  leather  and  bicycle 
tires  or  a  modest  Ford  in  moving  about  one's  parish. 

It  was  a  most  essential  part  of  this  visitation  that  it 
enabled  me  to  carry  on  a  continual  work  of  personal 
evangelism.  The  years  which  showed  the  best  returns  in 
the  enlistment  of  men  and  women  in  Christian  life  were 
the  years  when  I  gave  the  largest  amount  of  time  to  the 
filling  of  my  basket  with  hand-picked  fruit  through  per- 
sonal visitation  rather  than  in  shaking  the  tree  by  a  more 
general  and  miscellaneous  effort  at  evangelism. 

I  have  also  in  my  ministry  emphasized  the  vital  im- 
portance of  social  effort.  The  value  of  making  applica- 
tion of  Christian  principles  to  the  industrial  and  political 
problems  of  men  bulks  large  in  my  own  trial  balance.. 
We  are  not  sent  to  save  individuals  out  of  a  world  which 
is  to  be  left  to  its  own  fateful  ruin.  We  are  sent  to  save 
individuals  in  this  world  and  to  cooperate  with  them  in 
the  saving  of  the  world  itself  as  an  object  of  the  divine 
interest  and  the  subject  of  an  actual  redemption.  Men 
will  not  be  saved  by  sermons  and  sacraments  on  Sunday 
unless  they  are  also  being  saved  on  all  the  other  six  days 
by  the  work  they  do,  by  the  conditions  under  which  they 
do  it  and  by  the  spirit  they  put  into  it. 

And  I  would  record  my  own  feeling  in  passing,  that 


THE  SIGNIFICANCE  OF  THE  SERMON         7 

no  man  needs  to  leave  the  pastorate  to  find  the  largest 
sort  of  opportunity  for  social  effort.  Standing  at  the 
head  of  an  active,  useful  church  he  occupies  a  position  of 
unique  importance  in  rendering  personal  service  and  in 
furnishing  leadership  for  those  organized  efforts  which 
have  to  do  with  the  better  administration  of  what  is  called 
"charity,"  with  the  introduction  of  a  more  democratic 
and  Christian  spirit  in  the  control  of  industry,  with  the 
moralization  of  those  commercial  activities  which  consume 
the  bulk  of  hviman  time  and  strength  and  with  the  en- 
nobling of  our  civic  life  until  "the  powers  that  be"  shall 
indeed  be  "ordained  of  God"  to  high  ends.  The  wise  and 
efficient  pastor  may,  in  no  perfunctory  or  official  fashion 
but  in  genuine  everyday  usefulness,  sit  upon  one  of  those 
"twelve  thrones"  which  are  to  "judge  the  tribes  of  Israel." 

But  with  all  these  interests  of  the  minister  of  Christ 
fully  and  clearly  in  view,  I  would  say  without  a  moment's 
hesitation  that  the  making  and  delivery  of  an  effective  \ 
sermon  is  not  only  the  most  conspicuous  but  the  most 
influential  single  service  the  minister  is  privileged  to 
render  in  the  whole  round  of  the  week's  activity.  There 
are  any  number  of  men  and  women  in  your  parish  who 
are  both  competent  and  willing  to  give  attention  to  civic 
and  charitable  interests.  They  stand  prepared  and  ready 
for  those  lines  of  action  which  have  to  do  with  social  and  , 
industrial  betterment.  The  layman  in  his  particular  field 
of  interest  is  oftentimes  more  competent  for  this  form 
of  service  than  is  the  minister. 

But  unless  you  are  in  a  large  city  church  where  there 
is  a  staff  of  clergymen,  you  are  the  one  and  only  man  in 
that  church  who  can  stand  in  the  pulpit,  dealing  with 


8  THE  ART  OF  PREACHING 

truth  in  the  large,  and  with  people  in  the  large  as  an 
effective  preacher  of  a  divine  gospel.  Your  pulpit  is 
therefore  your  throne  where  you  exercise  an  undisputed 
prerogative.  You  may  well  ascend  it  as  a  king,  possessed 
alike  with  the  sense  of  royal  privilege  and  of  an  exacting 
responsibility. 

The  significance  of  the  sermon  is  further  heightened  by 
the  fact  that  in  the  preaching  of  it  you  are  taking  from 
the  people  a  vast  amount  of  valuable  time.  To  what  other 
man  in  the  community  are  five  hundred  or  a  thousand 
people  ready  to  give  a  half  hour  of  their  time,  week  after 
week,  simply  that  he  may  talk  to  them  ?  Suppose  you  are 
preaching  for  half  an  hour  to  only  two  hundred  people, 
which  is  a  congregation  of  very  modest  size.  Here  you 
have  consumed  one  hundred  hours  of  their  time !  You 
have  taken  a  measure  of  time  which  in  the  mass  amounts 
to  more  than  twelve  days  of  eight  hours  each  for  an  indi- 
0  vidual.  Have  you  that  material  in  your  sermon  which  is 
of  such  moment  that  it  would  warrant  you  in  going  to 
any  one  man  or  woman  in  that  congregation  and  saying, 
'*I  would  like  to  have  two  whole  weeks  of  your  time  to 
impart  to  you  certain  values  which  I  have  here  in  this 
discourse."  If  the  congregation  has  in  it  five  hundred  or 
a  thousand  people  then  the  responsibility  of  asking  for 
that  amount  of  time,  for  that  measure  of  human  atten- 
tion, for  that  quantity  of  human  life,  that  you  may  deal 
with  it  as  you  will,  that  you  may  summon  it  to  give  heed 
to  what  you  have  brought,  is  multiplied  until  the  very 
thought  of  making  such  a  demand  upon  one's  fellow 
beings  becomes  in  turn  alarming,  humbling  and  inspiring. 
There  is  unfortunately  a  certain  sinful  readiness  on  the 


THE  SIGNIFICANCE  OF  THE  SERMON         9 

part  of  some  ministers  to  presume  upon  human  forbear- 
ance because  massed  together  the  patient  people  will  listen 
to  and  tolerate  that  which  any  one  of  them  taken  alone 
would  either  openly  resent  or  quickly  escape  from.  The 
minister  who  is  dealing  out  the  same  old  thing,  Sunday 
after  Sunday,  pious  platitudes  which  have  been  heard  by 
these  very  people  a  thousand  times,  with  nothing  fresh, 
nothing  stimulating,  nothing  creative  about  it,  would 
never  dare  to  inflict  such  stale  stuff  on  any  one  intelligent 
person  in  that  group  taken  apart  and  alone.  The  man 
guilty  of  a  flow  of  pious  twaddle,  weak,  thin,  greasy, 
would  be  shamed  out  of  it  if  he  would  only  picture  to 
himself  the  look  of  consternation  which  would  come  over 
the  face  of  any  intelligent  man  in  that  congregation  to 
whom  he  might  offer  such  an  output  in  personal  conver- 
sation. And  all  those  futile,  pointless,  attenuated  exhorta- 
tions, to  which  no  response  is  really  expected,  would  like- 
wise become  impossible  if  the  individual  hearer  were  con- 
sidered in  detachment  from  the  patient  mass.  If  the 
preacher  would  add  up  the  full  measure  of  time  which 
he  is  taking,  by  computing  the  separate  contribution  made 
by  each  one  in  the  congregation  who  yields  his  presence 
for  the  half  hour,  and  would  then  separate  each  one  of 
those  minds  from  the  mass,  thus  studiously  avoiding  the 
unworthy  habit  of  presuming  upon  the  principle  of  group- 
patience,  he  would  be  moved  to  fight  shy  of  all  that  dilly- 
dallying. He  would  strive  to  pack  his  sentences  with 
meaning.  He  would  endeavor  so  to  condense  and  to  con- 
centrate his  thought  as  to  make  it  worthy  of  presentation 
to  the  people  before  him. 

The  sermon  gathers  further  significance  from  the  fact  L- 


10  THE  ART  OF  PREACHING 

that  it  is,  or  should  be,  the  flowering  forth  of  the  best 
there  is  in  the  man  who  preaches  it.  When  you  stand  up 
in  your  pulpit  you  are  saying  in  effect,  "Here  is  my 
ripest  judgment  on  this  matter  in  hand.  Here  is  my 
profoundest  thought  touching  the  interests  we  are  con- 
sidering. Here  is  the  best  I  can  do  as  a  result  of  all  my 
training  and  effort  in  giving  that  thought  worthy  literary 
expression.  Here  is  the  fullest  outbreathing  of  my  sym- 
pathy as  I  reach  for  your  attention.  Here  is  the  holiest 
aspiration  of  my  soul  as  I  look  Godward  for  His  help  in 
making  my  message  effective.  Here  is  the  utmost  vigor 
of  my  personality  in  action  on  the  highest  levels  open  to 
me  as  I  seek  to  lodge  this  truth  permanently  in  your 
inmost  soul."  If  the  sermon  is  a  sermon,  it  is  just  that, 
and  it  is  all  that. 

The  sermon  is  the  highest  output  of  which  a  man 
trained  and  devoted  to  this  end  is  capable  at  his  best. 
How  clear  this  was  in  the  preaching  of  our  Lord !  How 
we  feel  the  revealings  of  his  power  in  that  Sermon  on  the 
Mount !  "Seeing  the  multitudes.  He  went  up  into  a  moun- 
tain, and  opened  his  mouth,  and  taught  them."  When 
He  saw  the  people  He  felt  the  tug  and  pull  of  their  need 
upon  his  mind  and  heart — He  opened  His  mouth,  and  out 
came  the  Sermon  on  the  Mount  in  all  its  beauty  and 
power ! 

"Seeing  the  multitudes" — his  message  was  called  out 
by  the  appeal  of  life.  It  was  shaped  up  in  the  immediate 
presence  of  life.  In  every  line  it  bore  directly  upon  some 
one  of  the  fundamental  needs  of  life.  It  was  the  out- 
breathing  of  One  who  counted  it  not  a  prize  to  be  on  an 
equality  with  God,  standing  here  in  the  very  act  of  re- 


THE  SIGNIFICANCE  OF  THE  SERMON        11 

lating  his  own  dearest  possessions  to  human  necessity. 
To  feel  the  challenge  of  all  that  human  need,  and  then 
to  meet  it  with  the  very  best  one  can  bring,  is  to  preach. 

The  man  who  can  stand  before  a  waiting  congregation 
of  expectant  people  and  not  feel  in  a  measure  almost  over- 
powering the  tug  and  pull  of  their  need  upon  his  own 
moral  reserves,  summoning  him  into  the  highest  action  of 
which  he  is  capable,  is  altogether  too  wooden  to  be  in 
the  ministry  for  a  single  hour.  Such  a  man  might  use- 
fully serve  his  day  and  generation  by  becoming  one  of 
those  patient  figures  representing  a  rapidly  vanishing  race 
standing  out  in  front  of  a  cigar  store  to  invite  custom. 
But  such  a  wooden  Indian  cannot  preach.  If  any  man 
would  preach  he  must  have  that  spiritual  susceptibility 
which  at  the  very  sight  of  a  waiting  congregation,  causes 
him  to  kindle  and  burn  like  a  steel  wire  ignited  in  pure 
oxygen. 

"Here  am  I,"  the  real  preacher  says,  "not  to  put  in 
thirty  minutes  with  some  sort  of  pious  talk  because  it  is 
the  custom !  Here  am  I,  not  to  create  a  wonderful  im- 
pression by  making  what  the  sinful  and  wayfaring  man 
sometimes  calls  'one  of  my  greatest  efforts.'  Here  am 
I,  not  merely  to  give  an  audience  a  pleasant  half  hour! 
Here  am  I,  to  allow  the  best  I  have  in  mind  and  soul,  in 
brotherly  sympathy  and  in  spiritual  effectiveness  to  find 
expression  and  lodge  something  of  permanent  worth  in 
the  lives  of  these  people !" 

You  can  see  at  once  how  this  conception  of  the  sermon 
lifts  it  entirely  out  of  the  category  of  clever  and  skillful 
performances.  If  the  clown  in  the  circus  has  made  the 
people  laugh  and  has  enabled  them  to  enjoy  the  hour,  he 


12  THE  ART  OF  PREACHING 

has  discharged  his  duty — he  is  not  responsible  for  any- 
thing more.  If  the  clever  acrobat  or  the  trained  singer 
or  the  popular  lecturer  has  met  his  assignment  in  a  man- 
ner acceptable  to  those  who  have  paid  their  money  for  the 
performance,  his  obligation  has  been  entirely  fulfilled. 
What  these  men  have  done  or  said  or  sung,  may  lie  quite 
apart  from  their  personal  interest — they  may  have  been 
doing  it  all  merely  to  earn  their  wages.  They  are  not  to 
be  censured  if  this  is  the  fact. 

Not  so  the  preacher!  The  preacher  is  never  content 
unless  the  best  in  his  own  life  has  uttered  itself  in  such 
fashion  as  to  find  and  aid  the  best  in  all  those  other  lives 
to  whom  he  would  minister  in  spiritual  things. 

In  the  preaching  of  a  single  sermon  the  minister  may 
be  meeting  an  actual  moral  crisis  in  the  lives  of  any 
number  of  the  people  before  him.  He  may  be  aware  of 
some  of  these  but  the  larger  portion  of  them  are  hidden 
away  in  the  depths  of  those  human  hearts.  Here  are 
those  who  have  just  passed  under  the  shadow  of  some 
great  sorrow  which  blotted  out  all  the  stars  in  the  sky! 
Here  is  a  man  who  is  still  staggering  under  the  heavy 
load  of  some  bitter  disappointment !  Here  are  those  who 
have  gradually  awakened  to  the  life-long  tragedy  of  an 
ill-advised  marriage!  Here  are  those  who  can  scarcely 
sit  in  their  pews  because  of  the  rasping  load  of  anxieties 
they  bear!  Here  are  fathers  and  mothers  breaking  their 
hearts  over  sons  who  are  going  wrong! 

If  by  some  sort  of  spiritual  X-ray  the  preacher  could 
pierce  through  the  concealment  of  ordinary  conventions 
and  behold  the  moral  crises,  the  spiritual  famines  and  the 
personal  tragedies  to  which  he  is  called  to  minister,  the 


THE  SIGNIFICANCE  OF  THE  SERMON       13 

very  sight  of  it  all  would  stir  up  the  dullest  man  who  was 
ever  ordained  into  something  of  the  eagerness  and  effec- 
tiveness of  real  preaching.  It  would  shame  him  out  of 
the  listlessness,  the  perfunctoriness,  the  dullness  which 
cast  their  blight  upon  many  a  pulpit,  stinging  him  into 
something  that  would  at  least  bear  the  semblance  of  life. 

The  preacher  is  also  preaching  to  people  who  are  near- 
ing  some  great  crisis  just  around  the  next  bend  in  the 
road.  Here  is  a  man  whose  wife  will  die  before  another 
Sunday!  Here  are  parents  who  may  have  a  child  killed 
by  an  automobile  before  the  week  is  gone!  Here  is  a 
woman  who  may  discover  within  the  next  six  days  the 
infidelity  of  her  husband,  blotting  out  all  her  joy  and  all 
her  confidence  in  human  affection ! 

Here  are  those  who  are  rapidly  approaching  some 
frightful,  overwhelming  calamity !  Those  of  us  who  were 
preaching  in  the  cities  bordering  on  San  Francisco  Bay 
on  Easter  Sunday,  in  the  year  of  our  Lord,  1906,  deliv- 
ered our  messages  to  crowded  churches.  On  the  following 
"Wednesday  at  a  quarter  past  five  o'clock  in  the  morning 
came  the  earthquake. 

It  left  a  mighty,  joyous  city  in  ruins  and  ashes.  The 
fire  occasioned  by  the  earthquake  and  made  irresistible 
by  the  breaking  of  the  water  mains,  turned  three  hundred 
thousand  people  into  the  streets,  homeless,  foodless,  with 
no  clothing  save  what  they  wore  on  their  backs.  There 
were  thousands  of  people  who  retired  the  night  before 
prosperous,  only  to  be  rudely  awakened  from  their  sleep 
to  find  themselves  all  but  penniless.  I  suppose  every 
minister  in  that  part  of  California  asked  himself  with 
searchings  of  heart  during  those  solemn  days  which  fol- 


14  THE  ART  OF  PREACHING 

lowed,  "What  kind  of  a  sermon  did  I  give  my  people 
the  Sunday  before  to  fit  them  for  the  facing  of  that 
ordeal." 

Watch  therefore  this  high  task  of  ministering  in  God's 
name  to  men's  souls,  for  you  know  not  what  a  day  nor  an 
hour  may  bring!  If  the  good  man  in  the  pulpit  had 
known  what  awful  experiences  were  to  break  through  and 
steal  the  courage,  the  hope  and  the  trust  of  his  people,  he 
would  have  watched.  He  would  have  striven  with  all  his 
might  to  buttress  them  more  strongly  against  the  attacks 
which  were  even  then  at  the  door. 

I  was  preaching  one  Sunday  night  on  "Mercy,"  human 
and  divine.  At  the  close  of  the  service  a  young  man  who 
was  the  cashier  of  one  of  the  manufacturing  concerns  in 
the  city  came  to  me  and  in  the  secrecy  and  confidence  of 
my  study  he  confessed  to  me  that  he  had  stolen  twenty- 
eight  hundred  dollars  from  the  corporation  where  he  was 
employed  and  that  the  day  of  reckoning  when  the  shortage 
would  be  discovered  and  his  dishonesty  exposed,  was  near 
at  hand.  He  had  been  meditating  either  flight  or  suicide 
rather  than  face  the  disgrace  and  punishment  which 
seemed  inevitable.  I  discussed  the  situation  with  him 
until  midnight.  Then  growing  out  of  that  long  and 
serious  conference  we  devised  and  carried  out  a  plan 
which  led  to  the  confession  of  his  wrongdoing  to  his  supe- 
riors, to  his  retention  in  their  employ,  to  the  restitution 
of  the  stolen  money  through  several  years  of  self-sacrifice, 
and  at  last  to  the  entire  recovery  of  his  own  honest  man- 
hood. 

Suppose  that  I  had  been  trifling  with  some  fringe  of 
the  truth  that  night!     Suppose  that  owing  to  a  lack  of 


THE  SIGNIFICANCE  OF  THE  SERMON        15 

preparation  or  to  a  lack  of  genuine  feeling  I  had  been 
unable  to  make  the  quality  of  mercy,  human  and  divine, 
shine  as  a  thing  resplendent  in  the  dark  sky  which  over- 
arched that  troubled,  guilty  soul!  I  should  have  been 
smitten  to  the  heart  with  shame.  I  should  have  merited, 
and  in  some  form  I  should  have  received,  condign  punish- 
ment for  neglect  of  duty.  It  was  my  business  to  be  there 
with  a  message  of  help.  I  did  not  know  that  the  dis- 
honest man  was  there  while  I  was  preaching  but  he  is 
likely  to  be  there  in  any  city  congregation  the  preacher 
faces!  You  can  always  count  upon  the  presence  of  a 
thief  or  two  in  almost  any  evening  congregation.  You 
can  always  count  upon  the  presence  of  some  soul  in  a 
crisis,  crying  out  hungrily  for  the  best  you  can  give.  The 
man  who  dawdles  in  the  face  of  the  possible  need  in  any 
congregation  should  be  unfrocked  for  malfeasance  in  office. 
You  may  be  thoroughly  sure  that  in  any  congregation 
you  face  there  are  men  and  women  fighting  more  devils 
than  were  ever  cast  out  of  Mary  Magdalene.  They  need 
the  best  you  have  for  them  as  a  make-weight  on  the  side  of 
moral  victory.  You  may  be  sure  that  in  any  congregation 
there  are  men  and  women  sitting  quietly  in  their  pews 
who  can  scarcely  keep  the  tears  back  as  they  reflect  upon 
the  bitter  experiences  through  which  they  have  been  pass- 
ing. They  need  to  have  some  man  preach  to  them  until 
the  heavens  open  and  the  angels  of  comfort  are  seen  ascend-  i 
ing  and  descending  for  the  help  of  the  sons  of  men.  You 
may  be  sure  that  in  any  congregation  there  are  moral  na- 
tures getting  ready  to  flinch  in  the  presence  of  some  hard 
duty.  They  need  beyond  all  else  the  gripping  power  of 
some  mighty  truth  which  will  nerve  them  for  the  struggle 


16  THE  ART  OF  PREACHING 

and  enable  them  not  to  turn  their  backs  but  march  breast 
forward.  The  very  thought  of  the  spiritual  possibilities 
dormant  in  any  congregation  of  human  beings  is  enough 
to  shame  any  minister  out  of  preaching  a  dull,  cold,  life- 
less sermon,  if  by  any  measure  of  preparation  and  prayer 
he  can  do  otherwise. 

Let  the  minister  visualize  his  congregation  in  advance 
if  he  would  feel  the  full  significance  of  a  sermon!  Let 
him  do  this  while  he  is  at  work  in  the  quiet  security  of  his 
study  preparing  the  sermon.  Let  him  use  his  spiritual 
imagination  as  he  thinks  and  writes !  Without  becoming 
for  one  moment  wild  or  fanciful,  he  may  know  of  a  truth 
that  any  ten  or  twenty  of  a  hundred  different  forms  of 
moral  crisis  and  spiritual  tragedy  will  be  there  looking  up 
in  mute  appeal  when  he  stands  behind  his  pulpit.  He  will 
learn  enough  in  his  pastoral  visitation  and  in  the  office 
practice  which  comes  to  him  as  burdened  hearts  seek  him 
out  in  their  quest  for  relief,  to  be  able  to  supply  the  miss- 
ing segments  and  to  make  out  a  full-orbed  circle  of  human 
necessity  which  will  pull  upon  his  sympathies  like  the  tug 
of  a  planet. 

The  significance  of  the  sermon  is  further  increased  by 
the  fact  that  able,  effective  preaching  sheds  its  strength 
into  everything  else  the  minister  is  called  to  do.  You  can 
enter  habitually  into  exalted  and  helpful  fellowship  with 
your  people  by  your  preaching.  Then  as  you  are  called 
to  render  for  them  other  forms  of  service  the  memory  of 
those  high  hours,  the  sense  of  them,  the. power  of  them  will 
be  constantly  present  in  your  heart  and  in  theirs. 

When  you  set  forth  in  pastoral  visitation,  the  people 
are  saying  not  in  so  many  words  but  in  terms  of  personal 


THE  SIGNIFICANCE  OF  THE  SERMON        17 

consciousness,  "This  man  who  is  entering  our  home,  sit- 
ting at  our  tahle,  engaging  in  pleasant  converse  with  our 
children,  is  the  same  man  who  has  been  causing  us  to  see 
visions  and  dream  dreams  by  his  preaching."  You  are 
not  in  their  eyes  just  so  many  feet  and  inches  or  so  many 
pounds  avoirdupois  of  flesh  and  blood — you  are  a  divinely 
accredited  messenger  who  for  months  together  has  been 
declaring  to  them  a  wonderful  gospel.  The  full  strength 
and  the  entire  inspiration  of  all  your  past  preaching  is 
there  as  military  men  say  "in  force"  multiplying  by  ten 
the  good  effects  of  your  personal,  intimate  touch  upon 
those  lives. 

You  go  to  sit  at  the  bed  side  of  one  who  is  ill — sick 
unto  death  as  the  event  proves.  The  very  fact  that  in  the 
days  of  his  strength  you  preached  to  him  in  the  full  energy 
and  joy  of  the  spiritual  impartation  of  your  best  makes 
it  unnecessary  and  inappropriate  for  you  to  utter  any  of 
the  usual  commonplaces.  If  you  just  sit  there,  silent,  sym- 
pathetic, prayerful,  looking  into  that  wasting  face  with  the 
interest  you  truly  feel,  you  will  bring  out  of  a  world  un- 
seen bread  enough  and  to  spare.  His  soul  will  be  fed. 
His  whole  inner  being  will  be  renewed  by  just  seeing  you 
there. 

I  should  say  that  most  of  the  best  "sick  calls"  I  ever 
made  as  a  pastor  were  those  where  I  said  nothing  at  all 
beyond  the  quiet  utterance  of  a  few  texts  of  scripture 
(not  read  from  a  book  but  spoken  out  of  a  full  heart)  with 
perhaps  three  or  four  sentences  of  prayer  breathed  out 
softly — breathed  out  as  I  sat  in  my  chair,  it  might  be,  for 
the  Almighty  is  no  respecter  of  postures.  It  was  enough. 
It  was  vastly  better  than  many  of  the  wearisome,  alarming. 


18  THE  ART  OF  PREACHING 

exhausting  visits,  not  to  say  "visitations,"  of  clumsy  min- 
istrants  wlio  know  not  what  manner  of  men  they  are. 

You  drop  into  some  man's  place  of  business  for  just  a 
passing  word  of  greeting — it  is  touch  and  go,  but  you  bear 
with  you  the  atmosphere  of  all  those  noble  and  hallowed 
ideals  of  integrity,  of  commercial  honor,  of  highminded 
consideration  for  the  human  values  at  stake  in  the  marts 
of  manufacture  and  trade  which  he  has  heard  you  pro- 
claim. And  because  you  bear  with  you  the  sense  of  all 
this  your  touch  is  a  touch  of  healing. 

You  appear  in  the  City  Hall  at  a  public  hearing  on 
some  question  of  vital  civic  interest — and  to  all  those  who 
are  present,  publicans  and  sinners  though  many  of  them 
may  be,  the  place  you  have  won  for  yourself  by  minister- 
ing steadily  and  effectively  to  the  higher  life  of  that  com- 
munity by  your  able  sermons,  a  hundred  of  them  a  year 
for  years  together,  speaks  for  you  in  that  hour  far  beyond 
any  words  you  may  utter. 

The  spiritual  aroma  which  clings  to  the  life  of  a  man 
who  has  for  years  been  working  in  some  community  as  a 
strong,  vital,  helpful  preacher  of  the  eternal  Evangel  is 
an  all-pervasive  thing.  We  may  say  of  it  (not  irrever- 
ently I  trust),  that  if  he  ascends  up  among  the  saints  it  is 
there;  and  if  he  goes  down  to  make  his  fight  among  the 
sinners  it  is  there.  If  he  takes  the  wings  of  a  motor  car 
and  goes  to  the  uttermost  parts  of  his  parish  and  beyond, 
even  there  the  right  hand  of  an  influence  thus  gained  will 
lead  and  empower  him.  If  he  says,  "Surely  the  darkness 
of  some  untoward  situation  will  hide  my  power,"  even 
there,  the  honest  work  he  has  done  for  years  in  his  pulpit 
will  cause  that  place  to  be  light  about  him.    Such  influence 


THE  SIGNIFICANCE  OF  THE  SERMON        19 

is  too  wonderful  for  the  unrenewed  man.  He  cannot  at- 
tain unto  it.  And  for  us  all  it  is  high.  But  by  the  em- 
powering of  the  divine  Spirit  in  this  noblest  of  all  human 
tasks,  we  can  attain  unto  it.  / 

Then  the  very  habit  of  preaching  sermons  surcharged^ 
with  spiritual  tonic  and  fronting  ever  on  the  great  themes 
and  interests  will  incidentally  save  you  from  a  world  of 
petty  annoyances  which  have  infested  all  the  parishes  of 
which  we  have  any  record  since  the  day  when  Euodias 
and  Syiityche  somehow  failed  to  be  of  the  same  mind  in 
the  Lord.  The  petty  retailer  of  small  wares  from  his  pul- 
pit is  constantly  imperiled  by  every  fluctuation  of  feeling 
in  his  parish.  The  timid  fisher  for  higher  values,  who 
hugs  the  shore  with  his  little  boat  and  assays  only  the  shal- 
lows in  taking  the  small  minnows  which  compass  the  range 
of  his  interest,  may  be  capsized  or  stranded  on  a  reef  by 
the  slightest  adverse  breeze.  But  the  man  who  boldly 
launches  out  into  the  deep,  intent  on  doing  business  in  the 
great  waters  of  spiritual  effort,  will  be  rewarded  for  his 
valor  and  his  venture  in  that  multiplied  power  which  he 
will  gain  over  the  hearts  of  all  those  he  would  win  to  the 
service  of  the  highest  ideals. 

The  fate  of  our  Protestant  Christianity  is  in  my  judg- 
ment bound  up  in  large  measure  with  the  rise  and  fall 
of  effective  preaching.  If  you  will  read  your  church  his- 
tory, reading  between  the  lines  as  well  as  along  them,  you 
will  find  it  so.  There  have  been  countries  where  the  min- 
isters of  worship  have  been  privileged  to  use  the  best  to 
be  found  on  the  surface  of  the  earth  in  the  stately  archi- 
tecture of  their  church  edifices;  they  have  been  able  to 
develop   and  maintain  the   most  ornate   and   impressive 


20  THE  ART  OF  PREACHING 

forms  of  liturgy  ever  devised  by  the  minds  of  men;  they 
have  been  privileged  to  use  the  highest  expressions  of  art, 
having  for  their  altar  pieces  those  paintings  which  are 
masterpieces  and  for  the  adornment  of  the  niches  in  their 
temples,  marble  statues  so  nobly  wrought  by  the  sculptor's 
hand  that  they  all  but  spoke ;  they  have  been  able  to  levy 
tribute  upon  the  best  there  is  in  music  rendered  by  won- 
derful organs  and  heavenly  choirs  for  the  inspiration  of 
listening  congregations.  And  yet,  if  there  was  lacking  in 
all  this  the  living  voice  of  a  living  man  speaking  in  the 
name  and  under  the  power  of  the  living  God,  there  came  a 
steady  irresistible  decline  in  the  religious  life  of  that  land, 
''Religion  renews  its  life"  as  one  of  our  leading  Professors 
of  Philosophy  said  recently  "in  great  bursts  of  impulse 
which  emanate  from  rarely  impressive  personalities  capa- 
ble of  inspiring  exalted  and  passionate  devotion  in  their 
friends  and  followers." 

And  contrarywise,  there  have  been  countries  where  all 
the  appointments  of  public  worship  and  the  whole  quality 
of  the  spiritual  cultus  were  as  cold  and  as  bare  as  the  typi- 
cal N^ew  England  Meeting  House,  set  on  a  bleak  hill, 
painted  white,  with  green  shutters  and  window  panes  of 
clear  glass  cut  eight  by  ten.  Yet  in  the  very  face  of  such 
aesthetic  disadvantage,  the  religious  life  of  that  land  rose 
into  power  and  splendor  and  steadfast  devotion  through 
the  vitalizing  influence  of  great  preaching. 

"N"ow  when  the  day  of  Pentecost  was  fully  come"  the 
early  Christians  were  all  with  one  accord  in  one  place., 
"And  suddenly,"  not  in  response  to  the  appeal  of  stately 
architecture  or  of  moving  symbols  graven  and  painted  by 
man's  device,  not  in  answer  to  the  tasteful  movements  of 


THE  SIGNIFICANCE  OF  THE  SERMON        21 

an  ornate  liturgy  or  the  beseeching  energy  of  melodies 
which  were  like  the  music  of  the  spheres,  but  in  response 
to  "continued  prayer  and  supplication,"  there  came  a 
sound  from  heaven  as  of  a  mighty  rushing  wind.  And 
there  appeared  tongues — "glossal"  in  the  Greek  Testa- 
ment, "linguae"  in  the  Vulgate,  "tongues"  in  Anglo-Saxon 
— the  organ  of  instruction,  persuasion,  moral  appeal, 
tongues  like  as  of  fire;  and  they  were  all  filled  with  the 
Holy  Ghost. 

Then  Peter  stood  up  in  that  atmosphere  charged  with 
spiritual  dynamic.  He  stood  up  not  to  conduct  some 
highly  embellished  ritualistic  service  but  to  preach.  And 
he  preached — he  preached  them  a  sermon  which  gave  ut- 
terance to  the  best  that  was  in  him  at  his  best  and  three 
thousand  of  those  who  were  in  process  of  being  saved  were 
that  day  added  to  the  Christian  Church. 

You  may  study  the  effect  of  this  highest  form  of  effort 
not  merely  in  some  local  church  but  in  a  city,  or  in  a  na- 
tion, or  in  the  whole  wide  world  if  you  will,  and  you  will 
find  corroboration  abundant  for  my  contention  as  to  the 
unique  significance  of  the  sermon.  Where  preaching  is 
cultivated  and  developed,  exalted  and  honored,  to  the  high- 
est extent  possible  to  human  intelligence  and  devotion  thus 
reenforced  from  above,  the  religious  life  of  that  city  or  of 
that  nation  waxes  strong.  And  conversely,  where  the  com- 
munication of  truth  from  God  to  men  through  the  best 
type  of  personality  to  be  secured,  is  neglected,  the  religious 
life  is  enfeebled.  It  is  not  too  much  to  say  then,  that 
until  the  psychological  and  moral  facts  of  this  human 
nature  of  ours  are  changed  most  radically,  the  fate  of 
our  Protestant  Christianity  is  bound  up  with  the  main- 


22  THE  ART  OF  PREACHING 

tenance  of  strong,  sensible,  sympathetic  and  scriptural 
preaching. 

The  real  significance  of  the  sermon  may  be  sadly  dis- 
torted where  it  comes  to  be  viewed  as  an  end  in  itself. 
There  are  ministers  who  seem  to  have  forgotten  that  first 
question  in  the  Westminster  Catechism.  When  they  are 
asked,  "What  is  the  chief  end  of  man  ?' '  they  reply,  "Eor 
ministers,  the  chief  end  of  man  is  to  produce  two  great 
sermons  for  next  Sunday  and  t  "^(  i  lore  still  greater  ones 
for  the  Sunday  following."  Those  two  sermons  become  to 
this  unhappy  minister  a  veritable  bugbear. 

The  two  sermons  for  next  Sunday  may  become  as  some 
one  has  wittily  expressed.it,  "a  p.'i^  of  white  elephants  on 
the  minister's  hands."  He  as  to  irry  water  for  them 
through  the  whole  we  3k,  s  b  ?  do  len  the  circus  comes 
to  town.  He  has  to  be  forever  rubbing  them  down  so  that 
they  may  make  a  better  appearance.  He  must  be  forever 
foraging  to  get  enough  of  material  for  those  two  big  ani- 
mals to  eat,  for  their  hunger  knows  no  rest  and  the  capacity 
of  their  huge  stomachs  is  apparently  limitless.  He  is  com- 
pelled to  scurry  around  and  secure  new  blankets  to  put 
on  them  for  the  Sunday  parade.  It  is  a  frightful  respon- 
sibility to  dance  attendance  on  two  such  voracious  and  ex- 
acting beasts.  The  poor  preacher  oftentimes  becomes  des- 
perate and  all  but  decides  to  go  out  of  the  show  business 
altogether. 

All  this  comes  from  making  the  sermon  an  end  in  itself 
in  place  of  making  it  a  means  to  an  end.  We  are  not  set 
to  produce  great  sermons,  or  to  become  "great  preachers," 
as  the  saying  of  some  is, — we  are  commissioned  to  produce 
by  our  work  as  preachers  some  great  Christians. 


ilM^^ 


/^/.^HE  SIGNIFICANCE  OF  THE  SERMON        23 

'  The  leaves  of  the  sermon  are  for  the  healing  of  the 
people.  The  eyes  of  yonr  head  may  be  upon  your  pulpit 
and  upon  your  paper,  if  you  are  a  manuscript  preacher, 
but  the  eyes  of  your  mind  and  the  attention  of  your  heart 
must  be  upon  those  plain  and  needy  people  there  in  the 
pews.  Not  here  behind  the  sacred  desk  nor  upon  it  where 
your  homiletic  work  of  art  lies  in  all  its  learned  beauty, 
but  out  there  among  the  lives  of  men,  tempted,  struggling, 
doubting,  sorrowing,  failing,  is  the  place  of  your  supreme 
concern. 

We  can  imagine  the  Lord  before  whom  we  stand  asking 
each  one  of  us  in  searching  fashion,  "Have  you  been 
preaching  good  sermons  ?"  In  case  we  really  know  what 
we  are  about  the  appropriate  reply  will  not  be  "Look  at 
my  barrel."  The  appropriate  reply  will  be  "Look  at  my 
people."  Look  at  the  size  of  them  measured  in  terms  of 
spiritual  dimension !  Look  at  the  quality  of  them !  Look 
at  the  splendid  usefulness  they  show  in  those  lives  of  serv- 
ice to  which  they  have  here  been  inspired ! 

When  the  day  of  judgment  comes,  the  Son  of  Man  sit- 
ting upon  the  throne  of  His  glory  and  separating  ministers 
on  his  right  hand  or  on  the  left  as  a  shepherd  divideth  his 
sheep  from  the  goats,  will  not  look  at  our  barrels.  Our 
barrels  will  not  be  there.  The  contents  of  those  barrels  will 
all  have  been  rolled  up  like  a  scroll  and  consumed  with 
fervent  heat.  But  the  people  to  whom  we  have  preached 
will  be  there.  Some  of  them  on  the  right  hand,  and,  alas 
for  us  !  some  of  them  on  the  left !  And  that  will  be  the  ter- 
rible and  searching  test  applied  to  our  work  as  preachers. 
The  type  of  character  we  have  produced,  or  have  failed  to 
produce,  as  we  have  done  our  work  with  fidelity  and  effi- 


24  THE  ART  OF  PREACHING 

ciencj  or  as  we  have  scamped  it  with  slovenly  or  chilly 
indifference — that  will  be  the  test  applied  to  determine 
whether  we  ourselves  shall  be  found  upon  His  right  hand 
or  upon  the  left.  The  final  significance  of  every  sermon 
is  to  be  manifested  at  last  not  in  the  profundity  of  its 
thought  or  in  the  grace  of  its  literary  finish  but  in  the 
spiritual  results  which  it  achieves. 

It  is  of  primary  importance  then  that  we  have  this 
fact  in  mind  in  the  fixing  and  the  concentration  of  our 
attention  as  preachers.  The  man  who  is  out  hunting  does 
not  look  steadfastly  at  the  trigger  he  is  to  pull.  He  is 
naturally  desirous  of  carrying  with  him  the  best  sort  of 
gun  he  can  command,  but  once  in  the  field  his  eyes  are 
not  upon  the  weapon  he  carries  but  upon  the  game.  His 
eyes  are  sweeping  the  sky  and  the  field.  He  looks  at  the 
wild  duck  he  is  to  bring  down  by  his  well  directed  shot. 
He  looks  at  the  big  menacing  head  of  that  bull  moose  as 
it  emerges  from  the  brush. 

In  this  great  work  of  preaching  then,  eyes  front !  In- 
terest front !  The  sermon  is  to  be  sent  forth  to  convince 
the  judgment,  to  fire  the  heart  with  new  impulses,  to 
arouse  and  direct  the  action  of  the  will.  The  sermon,  how- 
ever profound  its  thought  may  be  or  however  beautiful 
it  may  be  in  literary  style,  is  a  failure  unless  it  accom- 
plishes some  definite  result  along  that  line. 

There  was  once  a  discouraged  young  preacher  who 
seemed  to  have  failed  utterly  in  awakening  any  spiritual 
interest  in  the  congregation  to  which  he  ministered.  In 
his  desperation  he  secured  the  services  of  an  older  and 
more  effective  minister  for  a  single  Sunday.  The  two  men 
sat  together  in  the  pulpit.     When  the  lessons  had  been 


THE  SIGNIFICANCE  OF  THE  SERMON        25 

read,  the  prayers  offered,  and  the  hymns  sung,  the  ohler 
man  was  ready  to  preach.     The  discouraged  pastor  of  the 
church,  who  knew  his  John  Ruskin,  then  whispered  to  him  ^ . 
as  a  grim  sort  of  joke,  "Now  you  have  thirty  minutes  in 
which  to  raise  the  dead." 

He  might  well  have  uttered  his  challenge  seriously.  We 
are  sent  to  do  just  that.  It  may  not  be,  in  all  probability 
it  will  not  be,  an  instantaneous  process.  We  are  not  com- 
missioned nor  empowered  to  call  the  dead  forth  instantly 
and  simultaneously  as  with  a  blast  from  Gabriel's  trumpet. 
But  in  a  progressive  way,  by  a  ceaseless  process  of  spiritual 
recovery  we  are  to  proclaim  our  good  news  in  such  fashion 
that  we  shall  actually  see  dead  men  coming  to  life.  They 
may  come  to  life  gradually,  in  spots,  as  it  were,  small 
areas  at  first  and  then  larger  areas  of  their  natures  show- 
ing the  quickening  touch  of  the  Spirit.  Their  unfolding 
and  ascending  wants,  desires,  outreaches,  will  proclaim 
the  fact  that  whereas  they  were  lost,  now  they  are  finding 
themselves ;  whereas  they  were  dead,  they  are  now  becom- 
ing alive  again. 

Art  thou  the  type  of  preacher  that  should  come  or  do  we 
look  for  another  ?  Show  the  one  who  makes  that  inquiry, 
those  things  which  men  do  hear  and  see.  The  blind  re- 
ceive sight,  the  deaf  hear,  the  sinners  are  cleansed,  the 
poor  have  good  tidings  preached  to  them  and  the  dead 
are  raised.  The  sermon  leaps  from  the  preacher's  lips 
that  the  people  may  have  life  and  have  it  in  abundance. 
He  is  intent  upon  seeing  them  alive,  alive  at  more  points, 
alive  on  higher  levels,  alive  in  more  honorable  and  effec- 
tive ways.  The  sermon  is  to  aid  them  in  having  life  which 
is  life  indeed. 


26  THE  ART  OF  PREACHING 

\-^^  The  sermon  gains  further  significance  from  the  fact  that 
it  undertakes  to  restate  the  truths  of  scripture  in  terms 
of  modern  life;  to  separate  that  which  is  local  and  tem- 
porary from  that  which  is  universal  and  abiding,  thus 
rightly  dividing  the  word  of  truth;  to  relate  to  modern 
need  in  effective  fashion  those  vital  elements  of  truth 
which  God  has  made  known  to  us  by  the  mouths  of  the 
holy  prophets  and  apostles;  and  to  interpret  that  whole 
literature  so  that  people  shall  see  the  love  of  God  and  the 
clear  prospect  of  life  eternal  for  his  children  shining 
through  it  like  the  sun  in  its  strength.  And  if  the 
preacher  can  accomplish  that  high  task,  his  sermons  will 
be  steadily  making  this  Bible  loved,  operative  and  efficient 
in  the  lives  of  the  people. 

The  sermon  undertakes  to  interpret  all  the  relations  of 
daily  life  on  their  higher,  their  heavenly  side,  so  that  they 
may  manifest  his  glory  and  the  people  be  led  to  believe  on 
Him.  It  undertakes  to  bring  out  the  unsuspected  possibil- 
ities of  spiritual  culture  and  expression  in  all  these  legit- 
imate callings  of  men  which  eat  up  the  bulk  of  their  time 
and  strength.  It  undertakes  to  set  the  whole  life  in  such 
relation  to  an  enfolding  spiritual  order,  that  whether  men 
buy  or  sell,  heal  or  plead,  build  or  teach,  or  whatever  they 
do,  they  may  always  and  everywhere  be  engaged  in  their 
Father's  business,  carrying  on  an  august  and  growing 
trafiic  in  those  values  which  transcend  all  human  ap- 
praisal. 

The  sermon  is  to  be  "the  communication  of  truth 
through  personality,"  as  Phillips  Brooks  put  it.  And  by 
virtue  of  this  function  thus  accurately  defined  it  has  pos- 
sibilities of  exalted  usefulness  not  shared  by  any  other 


THE  SIGNIFICANCE  OF  THE  SERMON        27 

form  of  human  expression.  The  printed  page  of  the 
author  may  easily  become  cokl,  remote,  abstract.  The 
painted  canvas  of  the  artist  may  have  no  more  heart  in 
it,  beautiful  though  it  be,  than  a  wall.  The  sound  of  the 
many  instruments  in  a  splendid  orchestra  used  by  some 
great  composer  to  convey  his  message,  still  lacks  that  which 
may  be  gloriously  present  in  the  real  sermon. 

Here  in  the  preaching  of  a  sermon,  the  face,  the  bear- 
ing, and  the  voice,  the  mind,  the  heart  and  the  soul  of  a 
living  man,  living  at  his  best  in  the  act  of  preaching  to 
living  men  there  present  the  gospel  of  the  living  God  who 
lives  and  speaks  through  his  servant  in  that  high  exercise 
of  his  best  powers — all  this  has  possibilities  of  self-ex- 
pression and  of  self-impartation  unequaled  elsewhere. 

But  it  goes  even  beyond  that.  The  preacher's  function 
is  a  transmissive  function  like  that  of  Jesus.  "The  glory 
which  thou  gavest  me,  I  have  given  them."  The  minister 
stands  midway  between  all  the  truths  which  may  properly 
be  utilized  in  preaching  and  the  hungry  hearts  of  a  mul- 
titude. He  stands  midway  between  that  Inexhaustible 
Storehouse  of  spiritual  dynamic  and  the  depleted  lives  of 
the  people.  He  becomes  in  no  flippant  sense  but  in  sober 
tnitli  "a  live  wire"  ch:irged  from  on  high  to  transmit  light 
and  power  and  warmth  to  those  who  walk  in  darkness,  in 
weakness,  and  in  the  chill  of  spiritual  neglect.  "'    "■ 

Here  is  a  man  preaching  a  sermon — if  he  is  really 
preaching  you  hear  him,  you  see  him,  you  feel  him !  All 
the  strength,  the  warmth  and  the  richness  of  his  person- 
ality as  well  as  his  uttered  words  are  steadily  counting 
toward  the  securing  of  a  certain  result.  The  subtle  spir- 
itual contagion  of  his  own  soul  on  fire  with  its  sense  of 


28  THE  ART  OF  PREACHING 

fellowsliip  with  the  divine  Spirit  is  at  work.  The  eager 
outreach  of  his  sympathies  as  he  loves  men  and  lifts  on 
them,  becomes  a  factor  in  the  determination  of  the  result. 
If  he  is  merely  reading  a  dainty  little  essay  or  giving  vent 
to  a  lot  of  noisy,  thoughtless  exhortation,  or  merely  im- 
parting a  bit  of  ethical  frappe  it  is  not  so.  But  if  he  is 
actually  preaching  the  gospel  of  the  Living  God  there  is 
nothing  on  earth  like  it.  If  you  will  make  the  communi- 
cation of  truth  and  power  through  personality  your  su- 
preme aim,  your  job  is  safe — there  is  no  one  else  working 
at  it ;  there  is  no  one  who  can  work  at  it,  as  you  are  priv- 
ileged to  do. 

The  preparation  of  a  sermon  then  is  really  the  prepara- 
tion of  a  man  who  prepares  and  preaches  sermons  as  the 
highest  exercise  of  his  functions.  You  will  prepare  a 
great  many  sermons — it  will  be  one  of  the  main  tasks  to 
which  you  will  address  yourself — but  you  will  be  all  the 
while  doing  that  more  fundamental  and  vital  thing,  pre- 
paring a  man  who  can  take  those  sermons  and  preach 
them  so  that  they  will  communicate  spiritual  life. 

In  view  of  the  great  significance  of  preaching,  in  the 
face  of  the  high  and  lasting  value  which  may  attach  to 
any  single  sermon,  we  cannot  afford  to  lower  our  stand- 
ards or  to  cheapen  our  line  of  goods  by  jesting  about  them. 
We  cannot  afford  to  allow  others  to  jest  about  them.  Let 
the  minister  of  Christ  resent  all  flippant  references  to  the 
barrel  of  sermons  as  a  collect ioiT  of  "dried  tongue."  All 
those  venerable  and  feeble  jokes  have  long  since  deserved 
respectful  interment  with  their  superannuated  contem- 
poraries. 

When  the  minister  himself  falls  to  the  level  of  such  poor 


THE  SIGNIFICANCE  OF  THE  SERMON        29 

wit  every  honest  heart  feels  the  sting  of  pain.  I  do  not 
wish  to  hear  the  surgeon  jesting  about  "keeping  his  knives 
sharp  for  operations"  because  operations  bring  him  his 
largest  fees.  I  do  not  want  to  hear  from  him  any  flippant 
remark  about  "gradually  filling  up  his  section  in  the  ceme- 
tery" as  a  result  of  his  practice  of  medicine — not  if  he  is 
about  to  operate  on  my  wife  or  if  he  is  engaged  to  care  for 
my  child  through  some  critical  illness.  The  newspapers 
may,  if  they  choose,  indulge  in  such  cheap  and  easy  forms 
of  humor  at  the  expense  of  preachers  and  of  doctors,  but 
the  men  themselves  knowing  the  dignity  of  their  high 
callings  and  the  issues  which  turn  upon  knowledge, 
skill  and  honest  attention  to  detail,  will  scorn  all  such 
flippancy. 

I  shall  never  forget  the  sense  of  awe  and  of  reverence 
with  which  I  prepared  and  preached  my  first  sermon.  I 
can  feel  the  tingle  of  it  yet.  I  chose  for  my  text,  "Believe 
on  the  Lord  Jesus  Christ  and  thou  shalt  be  saved."  My 
knowledge  of  Biblical  criticism  and  of  scriptural  exegesis 
was  meager  to  the  last  degree  but  I  felt  that  I  did  know  in 
my  heart  something  about  the  meaning  of  that  one  text. 
I  wrote,  as  I  was  to  speak,  mainly  out  of  my  own  religious 
experience. 

The  sermon  was  delivered  in  a  rather  shabby  little 
Mission  in  the  North  End  of  Boston.  It  was  a  section  of 
the  city  where  Satan  had  his  seat  at  that  time.  The  Mis- 
sion was  surrounded  by  rum  shops  and  dance  halls,  by 
sailors'  dives  and  gambling  dens,  by  all  the  principalities 
and  powers  of  evil,  by  the  rulers  of  darkness  and  the  de- 
mons of  wickedness.  The  people  in  the  congregation 
showed  in  their  very  faces  that  they  knew  more  about  sin 


30  THE  ART  OF  PREACHING 

and  its  retribution  than  all  my  Seminary  professors  put 
together. 

I  stood  up  and  preached  to  them  that  poor  first  sermon 
of  mine.  It  would  not  have  made  much  of  a  showing  in 
a  class  on  homiletics  but  it  was  the  outbreathing  of  mj 
very  soul  as  I  longed  to  help  those  people  by  some  spoken 
word.  And  when  at  the  end  of  the  sermon  the  invitation 
was  given  to  those  who  wanted  to  begin  the  Christian  life 
to  come  forward  and  kneel  at  the  altar  as  the  custom  was 
in  that  place,  there  was  a  response.  And  as  I  knelt  with 
those  who  came  and  talked  with  them  and  prayed  with 
them,  conscious  as  they  were  of  their  moral  failure  and 
feeling  after  help  if  haply  they  might  find  it,  my  heart 
overflowed  with  a  deep  sense  of  holy  privilege.  And  when 
it  was  all  over,  I  cried  all  the  way  home  for  very  joy  that 
God  had  called  me  to  be  a  minister  of  Jesus  Christ. 

I  never  want  to  lose  out  of  my  consciousness  that  fresh, 
vital  sense  of  the  high  significance  of  it  all.  It  was  thirty- 
three  years  ago  in  September  since  I  was  ordained  to  the 
Christian  ministry  and  I  have  been  preaching  steadily 
during  all  that  time.  I  have  preached  thousands  of  ser- 
mons since  that  first  one  and  I  hope  that  I  have  learned 
something  about  the  general  method  of  preaching  which 
enables  me  to  do  better  work.  But  if  I  should  ever  get 
so  used  to  it  all  that  I  could  mount  into  a  pulpit  and 
preach  a  sermon  without  trembling,  without  feeling  again 
something  of  that  same  sense  of  awe  and  of  holy  privilege 
which  attended  my  first  sermon,  I  should  know  of  a  surety 
that  the  time  had  come  for  me  to  quit.  We  cannot  tolerate 
in  this  work  of  ours  the  least  bit  of  affected  seriousness! 
All  pretense  or  bombast  or  make-believe  intensity  is  the 


THE  SIGNIFICANCE  OF  THE  SERMON        31 

profanation  of  a  holy  place  and  of  a  holy  calling.  But  in 
honest,  manly  fashion  we  do  want  to  exalt  onr  preaching 
steadily  by  our  own  sense  of  the  deep  and  precious  signifi- 
cance which  attaches  to  it. 

We  prepare  ourselves  assiduously  for  the  great  occa- 
sions. Nothing  can  be  too  good  for  the  N^ational  Council, 
or  for  the  General  Assembly,  or  for  the  General  Confer- 
ence, if  by  reason  of  strength  any  one  of  us  should  be  desig- 
nated to  preach  the  sermon  in  the  presence  of  such  an 
august  company.  But  every  occasion  is  a  great  occasion. 
You  are  constantly  dealing  with  great  themes :  great  inter- 
ests are  always  at  stake:  great  issues  may  turn  upon  the 
quality  of  any  one  of  your  messages.  You  can  say  on 
any  day  of  the  year  and  on  every  day  of  the  year  "This 
is  the  day  which  the  Lord  hath  made — let  us  rejoice  and 
be  glad  in  it." 

The  hidden  possibilities  in  any  congregation  to  which 
you  may  be  privileged  to  preach  become  therefore  a  chal- 
lenge to  your  best  powers.  You  are  there  to  lodge  if  you 
can  in  every  one  of  those  lives  something  that  will  make 
for  Christian  character.  You  are  there  to  lift  each  one  of 
those  lives  into  a  sense  of  fellowship  with  the  God  and 
Father  of  our  Lord  Jesus  Christ.  You  are  there  to  write 
not  upon  tables  of  stone  or  upon  pages  of  paper;  you  are 
there  to  write  upon  the  enduring  tablets  of  those  human 
hearts  something  that  will  be  read  to  their  honor  and  to 
yours  in  the  day  of  Judgment.  If  by  the  exercise  of  spir- 
itual imagination  you  can  see  the  latent  possibilities  hid- 
den there  you  will  know  of  a  truth  that  "the  most  critical 
and  influential  event  in  the  religious  week  is  the  sermon." 


n 

THE   BASIS   OF   THE   SERMON 

THE  sermon  should  undoubtedly  be  a  work  of  art. 
It  should  be  a  work  of  art  in  these  three  regards. 
1.    It  is  to  be  finely  conceived  so  that  it  may 
contain  and  express  some  one  great  idea,  standing  out 
clear  and  distinct  from  the  various  surrounding  truths. 

2.  It  is  to  be  well  wrought  out,  the  vision  of  the 
preacher  passing  over  into  achievement  as  he  declares  in 
the  finest  literary  form  he  can  command  wh^tjiehas  seen 
and  felt  in  connection  with  that  one  great  truth. 

3.  It  is  to  be  a  work  rounded  out,  finished,  and  com- 
plete, so  that  it  finally  stops  of  itself  because  itj^^done — 
this  last  characteristic  especially  is  held  in  high  regard  by 
the  laymen. 

And  yet  having  said  that,  I  feel  almost  ready  to  take  it 
all  back.  The  well-prepared  and  well-delivered  sermon  is 
indeed  a  work  of  art,  yet  it  remains  throughout  a  mere 
.^ool.  It  is  only  an  instrument  to  be  held  in  the  hand  or 
in  the  mind  of  the  preacher  as  he  goes  about  his  work.  It 
must  never  be  made  an  end  in  itself.  The  sermon  at  its 
best  is  only  a  brush.  It  is  a  brush  rather  than  a  painting 
— the  Christians  you  make  by  your  preaching  are  your 
paintings ;  they  are  your  masterpieces.  You  are  there  by 
your  preaching  to  paint  the  image  of  Grod  upon  the  souls 

32 


THE  BASIS  OF  THE  SERMON  33 

of  those  people.    The  fine  sermons  you  preach  are  merely 
the  brushes  you  use  to  achieve  that  superb  result. 

The  artist's  picture  may  or  may  not  tell  a  story;  it 
may  or  may  not  enforce  a  lesson — if  it  is  in  itself  su- 
premely beautiful  we  are  ready  to  hang  it  upon  the  walls 
of  the  gallery.  It  has  won  its  right  to  be  thero  by  its 
inherent  beauty.  But  your  aim  is  quite  otherwise  and  al- 
together higher.  You  do  not  want  your  people  to  sit  there 
in  their  pews  admiring  your  sermons.  "Me  genoito,"  as 
Paul  would  say — "Godforbid!"  You  want  your  people 
to  listen  and  to  make  response  and  then  go  forth  to  live 
Christian  lives  and  to  render  Christian  service.     When 


Aeschinesspoke  the  people  went  away  saying,  "What  a 
magnificent  oration  that  was !"  When  Demosthenes  spoke 
they  said,  "Let  us  march  against  Philip."  That  is  the  real 
test  of  effective  speech  to-day  as  it  was  in  the  days  of  an- 
cient Greece.  You  are  there  to  set  your  people  to  march- 
ing against  Macedon. 

If  then  you  are  honest  and  reliable  men,  worthy  to  stand 
in  Christian  pulpits,  you  will  never  allow  yourselves  to 
fall  down  and  worship  your  own  sermons.  This  would  be 
the  worst  sort  of  idolatry.  Thou  shalt  not  make  unto  thee 
any  written  image  or  any  likeness  of  anything  that  is  in 
Henry  Ward  Beecher  or  in  Phillips  Brooks  or  in  Fred- 
erick W.  Robertson — thou  shalt  not  bow  down  thyself  to 
such  aspirations  nor  serve  them  for  a  single  hour. 

You  will  not  allow  yourself  to  make  your  sermon  so 
fine  that  you  would  feel  reluctant  to  introduce  into  it  that 
homely,  helpful  and  effective  thing  that  ought  to  be  said. 
This  would  be,  as  one  great  preacher  puts  it,  "like  a  man 
making  his  chair  so  fine  that  he  would  not  dare  to  sit 


34  THE  ART  OF  PREACHING 

down  in  it."  Chairs  are  to  sit  in  rather  than  to  be  ad- 
mired. Sermons  likewise  are  to  be  constructed  so  that 
they  will  help  people  to  live. 

Where  some  young  minister  starts  in  on  his  sermon  after 
the  style  of  Pericles,  it  may  seem  altogether  too  much  of 
a  "come-down"  to  utter  those  direct  and  homely  words  of 
sympathy  which  might  make  it  a  bit  easier  for  some  man 
sitting  in  the  congregation  to  bear  the  sorrow  and  disap- 
pointment that  has  fallen  into  his  life.  It  might  seem  an 
unfortunate  break  in  his  flow  of  eloquence  if  he  were  to 
speak  that  clear-cut  word  of  moral  appeal  calculated  to 
enlist  the  interest  and  win  the  attachment  to  Christian 
ideals  of  some  growing  boy.  In  every  such  case  it  is  best 
to  let  !^ericles  go  and  move  straight  for  the  hoj.  The  ser- 
mon was  made  for  the  boy  and  not  the  boy  for  the  sermon. 

"Pulpit  orators/'  as  they  are  sometimes  called  by  the 
ungodly,  are  scarce  at  best.  I  suppose  there  are  not 
more  than  a  hundred  and  fifty  real  "pulpit  orators"  in 
this  room  at  this  moment.  But  of  men  who  can  speak  in 
simple  straightforward  fashion  to  the  needs  of  their  fel- 
lows there  are  many.  Keep  in  mind  then  that  the  sermon 
is  not  a  work  of  art  in  the  sense  of  being  an  end  in  itself — 
it  is  the  tool  of  our  trade. 

With  these  wholesome  precautions  in  mind,  however, 
I  would  urge  every  young  preacher  to  make  the  very  best 
sermons  of  which  he  is  capable  and  every  year  still  better 
ones  and  ever  and  ever  better  ones.  And  in  this  lecture 
I  wish  to  speak  more  particularly  of  the  real  basis  of  the 
sermon. 

The  habit  of  taking  texts  is  more  than  a  mere  conven- 
tion.   In  my  judgment  the  best  sermons  grow  directly  out 


THE  BASIS  OF  THE  SERMON  35 

of  texts.  The  best  sermou  themes  are  suggested  mainlj 
by  the  habitual,  thoughtful,  devotional  reading  of  the 
Scriptures.  The  varied  literature  of  the  Bible  covers  a 
wide  range  of  human  need  and  privilege.  The  Bible  is 
like  a  broad,  thick  slice  of  human  experience  which  has 
found  expression  here  in  superb  literary  form.  All  the 
sins  men  commit  are  there;  all  the  virtues,  all  the  vital 
interests,  all  the  high  opportunities  for  fellowship  with 
the  Eternal  are  there  wrought  out  in  terms  of  life  and  in 
words  that  glow  with  meaning.  They  are  all  there  in 
principle  if  not  in  detail  because  the  spirit  of  all  the 
duties  in  the  calendar  is  there,  even  though  the  letter  of 
exact  direction  may  in  some  cases  be  lacking. 

The  Bible  also  covers  the  whole  range  of  divine  help. 
You  may  say  of  it,  that  its  going  forth  is  from  one  end 
of  the  heaven  and  its  circuit  unto  the  other  end  of  it  and 
there  is  nothing  in  the  shape  of  human  need  hid  from  the 
help  thereof.  There  is  somewhere  within  this  book  an 
open  promise  of  spiritual  supply  for  every  conceivable 
form  of  need.  The  Bible  impinges  upon  these  lives  of 
ours  at  every  possible  point  of  contact.  There  is  comfort 
and  cheer  for  times  of  sorrow  and  depression;  there  is 
warning  and  rebuke  for  those  who  are  off  the  path ;  there 
is  confirmation  and  guidance  for  those  who  are  faced 
aright.  The  moral  interest  and  compassion  of  the  Eternal 
Father  expressed  here  fits  in  close  around  the  needs  of 
the  child  like  some  well  made  garment. 

The  sermon,  therefore,  may  well  grow  directly  out  of 
the  Scriptures.  The  habit  of  taking  texts  and  of  utilizing 
the  many  collateral  passages  of  Scripture  bearing  upon  the 
same  truth,  ties  up  our  utterance  to  a  book  in  common  use 


36  THE  ART  OF  PREACHING 

which  has  become  the  great  classic  of  religious  expression. 
The  scriptural  basis  of  the  sermon  thus  gives  it  the  added 
validity  and  power  which  comes  from  that  precious  asso- 
ciation. ''Thy  word  have  I  hid  in  my  heart  that  I  might 
not  sin  against  God."  You  cannot  be  better  employed  in 
your  pulpit  than  in  steadily  hiding  these  words  of  the 
Lord  with  their  deeper  meaning  revealed,  with  their  fuller 
implications  finely  wrought  out,  deep  down  in  the  hearts 
of  the  people,  that  they  too  may  not  sin  against  God. 

This  literature  is  so  rich  in  homiletic  material  that  the 
Biblical  preacher  need  never  run  dry.  He  always  hag 
something  to  preach  about  next  Sunday.  He  has  some- 
thing worthy  and  vital  to  preach  about.  The  sensational 
^preachers  are  forever  running  dry.  The  frantic  efforts 
and  the  loud  screeches  which  sometimes  emanate  from  the 
pulpits  of  such  men  are  like  the  unhappy  sounds  which 
come  from  some  old  fashioned  pump  in  the  country  where 
the  water  in  the  well  is  so  low  that  the  pump  will  not  draw. 
It  has  to  be  "primed"  by  the  pouring  in  of  a  sufficient 
supply  of  water  from  outside  the  well  to  start  it.  These 
preachers  who  draw  their  homiletic  supplies  from  the  pud- 
dles of  current  events  rather  than  from  the  well  that  is 
deep  often  find  themselves  similarly  embarrassed. 

There  are  not  sensations  enough  in  any  one  year  to  go 
around.  It  would  be  a  remarkable  year  which  furnished 
one  hundred  and  four  startling  sensations  to  be  used  by 
the  preacher  with  an  itching  ear  for  striking  themes.  The 
men,  therefore,  whose  eyes  are  ever  upon  those  newspapers 
which  show  the  largest  headlines  and  the  most  red  ink 
for  the  securing  of  their  themes  are  doomed  to  disappoint- 
ment.    But  in  the  Scriptures  we  shall  find  flour  enough 


^^^.y^YTH 


THE  BASIS  OF  THE  SERMON  37 

and  to  spare,  ground  out  of  the  finest  of  the  wheat  and 
worthy  to  furnish  in  adequate  measure  that  bread  which 
comes  down  from  above  to  give  life  unto  the  world. 

The  better  way  to  secure  this  Biblical  basis  for  one's 
sermons  is  not  to  go  to  the  Bible  habitually  on  the  hunt 
for  texts.  This  attitude  would  breed  an  exclusively  homi- 
letic  habit  of  mind  in  reading  the  Bible !  Ministers  more 
than  most  men  need  to  read  their  Bibles,  not  as  preachers 
keen  on  the  scent  of  likely  texts,  but  as  human  beings  in 
sfMvch  of  food  for  their  own  souls. 

Let  the  texts  hunt  you !  They  will  find  you  out  if  you  q 
arc  really  worth  finding.  You  may  properly  go  where 
thiy  are.  You  may  give  them  a  reasonable  chance  to  find 
;)(tu.  Then  as  you  move  along  through  Scripture  intent 
upon  knowing  and  feeling  as  much  of  its  contents  for  the 
enrichment  of  your  own  inner  life  as  it  is  possible  for  a 
-.man  of  your  size  to  know  and  feel,  the  texts  which  match 
your  mood,  the  texts  which  fit  into  your  personal  capabil- 
ities as  a  preacher  and  the  texts  which  will  best  meet  the 
needs  of  the  people  whom  you  are  bearing  sympathetically 
upon  your  heart,  will  fly  like  doves  to  your  windows. 

Get  your  texts  as  rightminded  young  women  get  their 
lovers.  The  right  sort  of  maiden  does  not  go  forth  in  pur- 
suit of  them — she  goes  straight  along  about  her  business 
and  lets  the  lovers  come  if  they  want  to.  And  if  the  girl 
in  question  is  any  kind  of  a  girl  the  lovers  will  come.  She 
will  by  that  method — a  method  as  old  as  the  days  when 
Euth  gleaned  after  the  reapers  in  the  fields  of  Boaz  with 
one  eye  on  the  stray  bunches  of  wheat  and  the  other,  quite 
casually  of  course,  on  the  kind-hearted  well-to-do  gentle- 
man who  owned  the  field — she  will  by  that  time-honored 


38  THE  ART  OF  PREACHING 

metliod  have  more  lovers  in  her  wake  than  she  would  if 
she  made  a  business  of  going  after  them.  It  might  be 
said  in  passing  that  the  young  ladies  are  usually  merciful 
enough  to  move  along  the  main  traveled  roads  where  the 
young  men  are  and  so  the  men  do  succeed  in  finding  them. 
And  if  you  in  similar  fashion  will  travel  thoughtfully, 
meditatively,  expectantly,  along  the  main  traveled  roads 
and  through  the  by-paths  of  your  Bibles,  the  right  texts 
will  find  you.  And  the  texts  which  come  after  that  man- 
ner are  the  ones  which  will  be  found  fresh,  vital,  and  in- 
teresting, beyond  all  others. 

I  was  passing  somewhat  cursorily  one  evening  through 
those  chapters  of  Genesis  which  come  along  between  the 
splendid  passages  about  the  creation  and  the  Garden  of 
Eden,  and  the  later  story  of  the  deluge.  Those  chapters 
are  not  especially  rewarding.  They  are  made  up  chiefly 
of  the  unfamiliar  names  of  those  old  chaps  who  are  said 
to  have  lived  so  long.  But  my  eye  suddenly  fell  upon 
this  text — "And  Methuselah  begat  sons  and  daughters 
and  he  lived  nine  hundred  and  sixty-nine  years  and  he 
died."  That  is  all  that  is  said  about  him — that  is  all 
there  was  to  say,  apparently.  Instantly  there  came  the 
thought  of  that  meager  Hf e.  He  lived  nine  hundred  and 
sixty-nine  years  and  he  died.  His  life  was  a  life  of  one 
dimension,  namely  length.^  No  breadth  of  interest  or  wide 
range  of  sympathy  to  be  recorded !  No  depth  of  convic- 
tion! No  height  of  aspiration  to  place  another  worthy 
ideal  in  the  sky  of  human  desire!  Nothing  but  length. 
He  lived  a  long,  narrow,  uneventful,  uninteresting  life 
of  one  dimension.  The  modern  scholars  tell  us  that  the 
names  of  these  worthies  who  are  said  to  have  lived  so  long 


THE  BASIS  OF  THE  SERMON  39 

are  the  names  of  tribes  rather  than  of  individuals.  How- 
ever that  may  be,  Methuselah  will  serve  as  well  for  the 
purpose  of  illustration. 

Contrast  that  life  with  the  life  of  Jesus  of  ISTazareth. 
How  long  did  he  live  ?  I^ot  long,  speaking  after  the  man- 
ner of  men!  He  was  only  thirty-three  years  old  when 
they  put  him  to  death  upon  the  cross.  Methuselah  lived 
thirty  times  as  long  as  that.  And  Jesus  spent  thirty  of 
those  thirty-three  years  in  preparation.  Ten  years  of 
training  and  spiritual  discipline  for  one  year  of  service! 
Ten  days  of  thought  and  prayer  for  one  day  of  redemptive 
action!  Ten  hours  of  silence  before  God  for  one  hour 
of  speech  in  the  ears  of  men !  How  much  he  packed  into 
those  three  short  years,  of  ministry  to  human  need,  of 
contribution  to  human  well  being,  of  holy  and  permanent 
influence  upon  the  unfolding  life  of  the  race!  His  life 
was  not  a  life  of  one  dimension — it  had  breadth  and  height 
and  depth.    And  that  life  has  become  the  light  of  men. 

I  had  never  heard  nor  read  a  sermon  on  Methuselah, 
but  the  moment  I  saw  that  text  I  was  impatient  for  the 
hour  to  come  when  I  could  work  out  that  idea  of  a  life 
of  one  dimension  as  contrasted  with  the  life  which  stands 
foursquare,  possessing  the  symmetry  which  belongs  to  the 
soul  where  length  and  breadth  and  height  and  depth  are 
all  combined  in  that  building  of  God,  that  house  not  made 
with  hands,  that  spiritual  edifice  eternal  in  the  heavens 
which  represents  each  man's  moral  achievement.  The 
moment  my  eye  fell  upon  Methuselah  and  then  ran  ahead 
to  the  brief  but  potent  life  of  the  Master  here  on  earth, 
I  had  my  sermon. 

If  any  man  will  read  his  Bible  regularly  in  a  brood- 


40  THE  ART  OF  PREACHING 

ing,  leisurely,  reflective  sort  of  way,  pondering  the  depths 
which  lie  concealed,  noting  the  points  of  contact  between 
Scripture  and  his  own  heart,  marking  the  lines  of  ap- 
proach which  the  Scriptures  make  to  the  needs  of  his 
people,  he  will  find  that  rewarding  texts,  stimulating 
ideals,  great  vital  truths  will  rise  up  to  meet  him  as  the 
angels  of  God  met  Jacob  at  Mahanaim.  They  will  come 
forth  to  wrestle  with  him,  all  night  if  need  be,  until  they 
have  blessed  him.  They  will  tell  him  their  names  and 
make  a  new  man  of  him. 

The  land  of  Scripture  is  a  good  land.  It  is  a  land  of 
hills  and  valleys  that  drinketh  water  of  the  rain  of  heaven. 
And  it  is  a  land  of  endless  variety.  It  is  a  land  of  wheat 
and  barley,  of  vines  and  fig  trees,  and  pomegranates,  a 
land  of  olive  oil  and  honey;  a  land  where  thou  mayest 
eat  bread  without  scarceness  and  not  lack  any  good  thing. 
You  enter  a  region  of  plenty  and  of  variety  when  you 
pass  within  the  confines  of  holy  writ.  Reading  the  Bible 
broadly,  passing  through  the  length  and  the  breadth  of 
its  wide  areas,  year  by  year  with  some  sort  of  system,  you 
will  get  the  strength  of  its  products,  the  sweep  and  range 
of  its  outlooks,  and  the  genuine  power  of  its  insights  into 
your  very  blood. 

The  man  who  bases  his  preaching  in  this  broad  way 
iipon  the  teaching  of  Scripture  is  also  saved  from  overspe- 
cialization.  These  single-barreled  preachers  who  are  always 
urging  some  one  aspect  of  the  manysided  truth  of  God 
become  in  time  like  Jewsharps,  to  change  the  figure 
abruptly.  Their  harping  is  all  done  on  one  solitary  reed 
with  only  slight  variations  of  pitch  according  to  the  way 
they  pucker  their  mouths.    While  on  the  other  hand,  the 


THE  BASIS  OF  THE  SERMON  41 

man  who  allows  the  larger  aspects  of  truth  contained  in 
the  Scriptures  to  play  freely  into  his  preaching  is  in  line 
to  become  a  regular  church  organ  with  pipes  innumerable. 
He  becomes  capable  of  uttering  the  deep  rich  diapason 
tones.  He  can  upon  occasion  use  the  harsh  strident  sum- 
mons of  the  trombone  in  denouncing  some  crying  evil  or 
in  uttering  a  call  to  battle.  He  has  at  his  command  the 
softer  string  and  reed  stops,  the  flute  and  the  viola,  the 
clarionet  and  the  oboe.  He  may  indeed  by  his  skillful 
use  of  the  vox  humana  weep  with  those  that  weep — this 
-however  sparingly  and  with  great  good  judgment  espe- 
cially if  by  temperament  he  leans  to  the  tearful  class  of 
ministers.  But  the  broader  study  of  Scripture  gives  him 
these  many  lines  of  approach  and  protects  him  from  the 
narrow  futility  of  the  man  who  makes  a  hobby  of  one 
idea  and  rides  it  in  season  and  out  of  season  to  the  weari- 
ness of  all  hands. 

I  am  a  firm  believer  in  the  value  of  expository  preach- 
ing. There  is  a  good  deal  of  counterfeit  money  in  circu- 
lation at  this  point.  There  is  that  which  is  called  "ex- 
pository preaching"  but  in  reality  it  is  another  sort  of 
thing  altogether;  and  the  discredit  which  attaches  to  the 
spurious  article  has  shaken  the  faith  of  many  preachers 
in  the  utility  of  expository  sermons.  It  has  also  repelled 
the  interest  of  the  people  in  advance  of  any  fair  trial  of 
its  merits. 

By  expository  preaching,  I  do  not  mean  a  running,  skit- 
tering comment,  suited  to  a  Sunday  School  class.  The 
man  who  lumps  out  on  his  congregation  a  lot  of  undigested 
information  as  to  the  history  and  geography  suggested 
in  a  certain  chapter,  with  some  careless  interpretation  of 


42  THE  ART  OF  PREACHING 

it,  and  with  "the  drawing  of  lessons,"  apt  and  inapt,  is 
not  in  any  sense  an  expository  preacher.  He  has  no  unity 
in  his  message,  no  sense  of  progress,  no  real  organization 
of  his  material,  no  definite  aiming  at  a  particular  goal,  to 
confer  upon  his  effort  the  honor  of  being  a  sermon.  He 
does  not  bring  up  anywhere — there  is  no  reason  why  he 
should  not  go  on  in  that  hit  or  miss  fashion  verse  after 
verse  for  two  hours,  or  even  for  the  twenty-four  hours — 
and  the  patient  people  are  sometimes  afraid  that  he  will. 
A  congregation  of  sensible  people  will  not  stand  for  that, 
and  they  ought  not  to  stand  for  it. 

By  expository  preaching  I  do  not  mean  a  prayer  meet- 
ing style  of  comment,  full  of  pious  homily,  and  with  a 
certain  amount  of  exegesis  of  a  loose  type.  The  exposi- 
tory sermon  is  a  product  of  exegesis,  but  not  an  exhibition 
of  it.  It  is  altogether  wise  to  dig  beforehand  with  your 
Greek  spade  and  your  Hebrew  shovel  but  not  to  be  dig- 
ging while  you  are  preaching.  The  slovenly  comments 
on  some  passage  which  become  "a  kind  of  weak  and 
watery  paraphrase  of  the  original"  is  not  expository 
preaching — it  is  just  an  exhibition  of  plain  unregenerate 
laziness,  on  the  part  of  a  man  who  had  not  energy  enough 
to  prepare  a  real  sermon. 

The  expository  preacher  organizes  the  material  in  his 
passage  so  that  he  secures  the  sense  of  unity  and  of 
progress.  He  also  aims  at  and  arrives  at  some  definite 
goal.  He  simply  deals  with  the  Scriptures  in  larger 
chunks  than  does  the  textual  preacher.  The  best  results 
in  my  judgment  can  be  secured  by  the  connected,  sys- 
tematic exposition  of  some  one  book  in  th#  Bible  for 
weeks  or  for  months  together.     There  is  commonly  some 


THE  BASIS  OF  THE  SERMON  43 

unifying  idea  in  each  book,  around  which  a  series  of  ten 
or  twenty  or  thirty  sermons  may  well  be  built. 

The  advantages  of  this  t;^'pe  of  preaching  are  many. 
It  has  the  historic  warrant  of  being  apostolic.  The  early 
fathers  utilized  it.  The  Apostles  in  their  preaching  fre- 
quently expounded  some  passage  from  the  Old  Testament 
Scriptures.  The  Master  in  his  opening  address  at 
Nazareth  chose  a  passage  from  Isaiah,  interpreted  it,  and 
assured  his  hearers  that  this  Scripture  was  being  fulfilled 
before  their  eyes.  '^heSermon  on  the  Mount,  in  large 
measure,  is  a  criticism,  an  interpretation  and  a  logical 
dgvgjopment  of  thr-  law  of  the  Jewish  Church  as  contained 
^_TTi  thp  Old   TpstflTT)fint. 

The  expository  method  of  preaching  insures  a  more 
thorough  knowledge  of  the  Bible  on  the  part  of  the 
preacher  himself.  He  does  not  now  snatch  out  one  stray 
text  as  a  dog  might  pick  up  a  likely-looking  bone  for 
temporary  use — he  takes  a  considerable  section  of  this 
body  of  truth,  as  a  farmer  might  hang  up  in  his  meat- 
house  in  the  fall  of  the  year  a  whole  quarter  of  beef,  with 
its  layers  of  fat  and  tenderloin,  intending  to  cut  off  from 
time  to  time  such  steaks  and  roasts  as  might  be  served 
up  to  meet  the  needs  of  his  family. 

The  expository  preacher  sets  out  by  a  course  of  sys- 
tematic study  to  master  the  contents  of  some  considerable 
section  of  Scripture  with  the  same  generous  intent.  He 
means  to  feed  his  people  from  that  body  of  truth  as  upon 
the  meat  that  perisheth  not,  but  endures  unto  everlasting 
life. 

This  method  of  preaching  also  develops  a  more  thor- 
ough knowledge  of  the  Bible  on  the  part  of  the  people. 


44  THE  ART  OF  PREACHING 

They  can  be  induced  to  read  a  certain  book,  methodically 
and  repeatedly,  during  those  months  while  their  minister 
is  preaching  from  it.  They  will  talk  about  it  to  their 
children  and  to  their  friends  when  they  are  sitting  in 
their  houses  and  when  they  are  walking  by  the  way. 
They  will  write  its  finest  passages  upon  the  doorposts  of 
their  minds.  They  will  have  its  deeper  meanings  as 
frontlets  before  their  eyes.  They  may  be  led  to  purchase 
and  to  use  simple,  popular  commentaries  upon  it,  thus 
enabling  them  to  enter  more  profoundly  into  its  full 
significance. 

The  expository  form  of  preaching  gradually  develops 
both  in  the  pulpit  and  in  the  pew  the  Scriptural  point  of 
view,  than  which  there  is  none  better.  By  using  the 
Scripture  in  this  larger  way,  all  the  great  doctrines  of 
faith  and  prayer,  of  atonement,  of  regeneration,  of  in- 
spiration, and  all  the  great  moral  problems  as  well,  are 
viewed  in  the  light  of  Scripture  taken  in  the  large.  The 
people  are  delivered  from  the  whole  habit  of  judging  the 
Bible  by  some  stray  sentence  in  it.  The  peddling,  pelting 
use  of  texts  is  banished  by  this  better  method.  The  people 
are  encouraged  to  put  their  trust  in  the  general  trend 
and  drift  of  the  -Bible's  teaching,  to  shape  their  belief 
and  conduct  by  the  main  conclusions  to  which  it  brings 
them,  and  to  develop  their  attitudes  by  the  whole  j)oint 
of  view  which  it  gradually  induces.  r 

The  man  who  would  paint  good  pictures  goes  to  France 
or  to  Italy  that  he  may  spend  days  and  weeks  and  months 
in  the  Louvre  at  Paris  or  in  the  Pitti  and  the  Ufiizi  Gal- 
leries at  Florence.  He  stays  there  in  the  presence  of 
Rembrandt  and  Raphael,  Rubens  and  Titian  until  his 


THE  BASIS  OF  THE  SERMON  45 

canons  of  taste  are  finely  and  firmly  established  so  that 
only  the  beautiful  things  seem  beautiful.  The  amateur 
musician  lives  where  he  hears  Beethoven  and  Wagner, 
Schubert  and  Brahms,  until  ragtime  and  jazz  and  all  the 
other  musical  ores  of  low  grade  have  become  an  offense 
to  his  ear.  Only  the  nobler  melodies  and  harmonies  are 
now  acceptable  to  his  cultivated  taste.  In  similar  fashion 
the  people  in  a  congregation  accustomed  to  live  in  the 
presence  of  the  sublime  truths  of  Scripture  become  trained 
in  eye  and  in  ear,  in  moral  judgment  and  in  conscience. 
They  form  their  taste  and  they  shape  their  action  with 
reference  to  the  classical  ideals  and  principles  of  the 
Bible. 

This  wider  use  of  Scripture  also  induces  a  more  honest 
use  of  the  Bible.  The  various  texts  are  by  the  method 
of  expository  preaching  taken  in  their  setting  as  part  of 
a  general  presentation  of  truth.  The  varying  texts  are 
made  to  correct  and  to  supplement  each  other.  The  men 
who  wrote  the  Bible  did  not  undertake  to  say  everything 
at  once  and  the  separate  statement  standing  alone  often 
becomes  misleading  and  dangerous.  The  bigot  and  the 
fanatic  are  commonly  developed  by  taking  some  single 
Scriptural  truth  out  of  its  connection.  The  small  man 
like  the  small  boat  is  completely  capsized  by  having  one 
big  truth  suddenly  plumped  upon  him  without  the  balanc- 
ing and  steadying  influence  of  other  truths  laid  upon  the 
further  side  of  his  moral  nature.  His  moral  nature  would 
be  made  to  trim  more  surely  if  he  had  some  other  impor- 
tant truths  aboard.  The  larger  use  of  Scripture  has  a 
tendency  to  develop  the  well-rounded  habit  of  mind  and 
the  moral  nature  possessed  of  poise. 


46  THE  ART  OF  PREACHING 

The  systematic  exposition  of  book  after  book  of  the 
Bible  gives  also  the  advantage  of  order.  There  are  few 
forms  of  serious  effort  which  are  carried  on  in  such 
slap-dash,  hit-or-miss,  go-as-you-please,  catch-as-catch-can 
fashion  as  the  work  of  preaching.  On  Tuesday  morning 
the  average  minister  becomes  painfully  aware  that  next 
Sunday  is  coming.  While  he  was  attending  the  Min- 
isters' Meeting  the  day  before,  or  otherwise  beguiling  the 
time,  it  has  actually  gained  on  him  one  of  the  six  short 
laps  which  lie  between  him  and  the  day  of  reckoning. 
''What  shall  I  preach  on  next  Sunday?"  he  asks  himself. 
He  may  feel  free  to  preach  on  anything  in  heaven  above 
or  on  the  earth  beneath  or  in  that  other  place,  lying  some- 
where "darkly  between." 

He  may,  if  he  chooses,  wait  for  some  brand  new  truth 
which  shall  come  to  him  through  his  reading  during  the 
week.  He  may  simply  consult  his  own  dominant  mood, 
a  habit  which  is  liable  to  over-specialize  his  utterance. 
He  may,  indeed,  if  he  be  a  clerical  opportunist,  wait  to 
see  what  the  ravens,  that  is  to  say  the  black-coated  news- 
papers, may  bring  him  in  the  shape  of  a  first-class  sensa- 
tion with  headlines  and  pictures  which  he  can  warm  over 
on  Sunday  morning  into  a  make-believe  sermon  to  min- 
ister to  an  already  over-stimulated  and  jaded  public. 

The  expository  preacher  is  saved  from  all  this  solici- 
tude and  indecision.  He  has  a  certain  program  already 
laid  out  for  him.  He  is  in  process  of  developing  the  truth 
of  some  one  of  the  great  books  of  the  Bible.  He  wastes 
no  time,  therefore,  in  making  his  decision,  but  sets  to 
work  at  once  upon  the  task  in  hand.  If  the  passage  just 
ahead  should  be  the  account  of  Solomon  sending  up  to 


THE  BASIS  OF  THE  SERMON  47 

Hiram,  King  of  Tyre,  for  cedar  trees  to  build  the  temple, 
the  minister  gets  down  to  business  at  once  and  pegs  away 
on  those  cedar  trees  until  something  has  to  come. 

This  method  need  never  become  a  bondage.  ITo  fixed 
schedule  of  topics  need  be  announced  m  advance.  The 
minister  may  make  his  own  program  as  he  goes  along. 
He  may  even  use  upon  occasion  the  given  passage  for 
the  evening  rather  than  for  the  morning  congregation 
should  such  a  change  seem  wise.  He  can  drop  it  alto- 
gether on  any  particular  Sunday  to  make  room  for  a 
Christmas  or  an  Easter  sermon,  or  for  an  appeal  in  con- 
nection with  the  taking  of  a  missionary  collection. 

He  will  sometimes  use  a  whole  chapter  of  Scripture  as 
the  basis  for  his  sermon,  sometimes  two  chapters,  some- 
times only  a  half  or  a  third  of  a  chapter  as  may  best  serve 
his  purpose,  having  regard  always  to  a  certain  unity  of 
impression.  He  can  use  the  other  service  on  Sunday  as  a 
kind  of  free-for-all,  guerrilla  sort  of  war  against  the 
world,  the  flesh  and  the  devil,  but  by  following  up  the 
plan  of  expository  preaching  at  one  of  his  services  he  will 
ensure  to  his  people  a  large  measure  of  solid,  systematic, 
Scriptural  instruction  in  the  course  of  every  year. 

This  style  of  preaching  also  brings  a  man  naturally 
and  inevitably  to  some  of  those  difficult  themes  which  the 
minister  left  to  his  own  miscellaneous,  extemporaneous 
choices  from  Sunday  to  Sunday  might  avoid.  The  people 
may  sorely  need  instruction  and  moral  appeal  along  some 
particular  line,  but  the  minister  may  feel  that  it  would 
be  very  pointed  and  perhaps  a  bit  strained  for  him  sud- 
denly to  break  out  on  some  delicate  question. 

Take  the  matter  of  divorce !     The  present  domestic  in- 


48  THE  ART  OF  PREACHING 

stability,  the  high  percentage  of  divorces  in  this  country 
as  compared  with  the  record  of  other  Protestant  coun- 
tries, the  light  and  flippant  way  in  which  the  whole  ques- 
tion of  marital  fidelity  is  oftentimes  treated  in  the  press 
and  on  the  stage,  make  it  imperative  that  the  minister  of 
the  higher  values  should  have  something  to  say  touching 
our  fundamental  social  institution,  the  home.  He  will  in 
all  probability  have  people  in  his  own  congregation  who 
have  been  divorced  and  remarried — and  their  sensibili- 
ties on  this  point  will  be  like  so  many  sore  thumbs,  always 
obtruding  and  in  the  way,  and  forever  getting  hurt  by  the 
careless  contacts  of  everyday  life. 

Now  if  the  minister  is  preaching  a  series  of  expository 
sermons  on  the  Gospel  of  Matthew  he  will  come  naturally 
and  inevitably  to  that  passage  which  says,  "Moses  gave 
you  that  writing  of  divorcement  because  of  the  hardness 
of  your  hearts,  but  from  the  beginning  it  was  not  so.  I 
say  unto  you,  that  whosoever  shall  put  away  his  wife 
(except  it  be  for  the  cause  of  fornication)  and  shall  marry 
another,  committeth  adultery;  and  whosoever  shall  marry 
her  that  is  put  away  committeth  adultery." 

Here  is  the  teaching  of  our  Lord,  the  minister  may  well 
say!  And  he  may  then  with  entire  frankness  and  with- 
out the  least  suspicion  of  having  gone  out  of  his  way  to 
make  a  personal  attack  upon  a  few  of  the  people  there  be- 
fore him  indicate  the  direct  bearing  of  that  teaching  upon 
some  of  the  practices  of  modem  life. 

"I  have  not  shunned  to  declare  unto  you  the  whole 
counsel  of  God,"  the  apostle  said.  He  had  not  selected 
his  themes  with  delicate  consideration  for  those  itching 


THE  BASIS  OF  THE  SERMON  49 

ears  which  would  welcome  onlj  that  which  matched  their 
own  spiritual  sloth.  And  because  he  had  declared  the 
whole  counsel  of  God,  he  was  able  to  count  himself  "pure 
from  the  blood"  of  those  who  might  fall  under  the  divine 
condemnation. 

If  a  man  is  preaching  on  the  Gospel  of  Luke,  the  search- 
ing and  rigorous  teachings  of  Jesus  as  to  the  perils  and 
the  obligations  of  wealth  can  be  brought  out  with  tre- 
mendous effect  and  with  no  suspicion  whatever  that  the 
minister  in  any  partisan  spirit  is  singling  out  one  par- 
ticular class  of  his  hearers  for  personal  attack. 

If  he  is  preaching  on  the  Book  of  Judges  the  parable 
of  Jotham  will  naturally  come  in  for  an  orderly  exposi- 
tion. Its  direct  bearing  on  the  political  carelessness 
and  the  apathy  of  many  of  our  good  citizens  who  pay 
their  pew  rent  regularly  and  are  pillars  in  the  temple  of 
God,  may  be  most  effectively  brought  out.  The  trees,  you 
remember,  were  engaged  in  the  election  of  a  king.  The 
olive  tree  was  nominated.  But  it  pleaded  that  it  could 
not  leave  the  fatness  of  its  occupation  in  producing  olive 
oil  in  order  to  hold  political  office.  The  fig  tree  was 
nominated.  But  it  insisted  that  it  could  not  leave  the 
sweetness  of  its  particular  occupation  in  furnishing  the 
world  with  figs  in  order  to  enter  upon  a  political  cam- 
paign. The  vine  was  nominated.  But  the  vine  was 
strongly  determined  not  to  leave  its  wine  which  gladdened 
the  hearts  of  men  for  a  paltry  political  position.  And 
thus  in  the  default  of  all  of  these  reputable  citizens  of 
the  tree  kingdom,  the  olive  tree,  the  fig  tree  and  the  vine, 
there  came  forward  an  old,  worthless  bramble.     And  this  i^"^ 


50  THE  ART  OF  PREACHING 

good-for-nothing  bramble  suggested  that  if  the  office  of 
king  was  going  begging  he  would  be  willing  to  stand. 
And  so  the  bramble  became  king  over  the  trees. 

It  will  be  good  for  your  bankers  and  your  merchants, 
your  manufacturers  and  your  college  professors  to  hear 
this  word  of  the  Lord  in  the  day  when  they  are  so  occu- 
pied with  the  fatness  and  the  sweetness  of  their  callings, 
in  the  day  when  they  are  so  in  love  with  all  those  things 
which  make  glad  the  hearts  of  men,  as  to  allow  the  po- 
litical brambles  of  the  city  oftentimes  to  take  to  them- 
selves the  high  responsibility  of  administering  the  civic 
affairs. 

If  the  pastor  is  resolved  to  declare  his  bottom  thought, 
his  most  serious  and  intense  conviction  touching  the  fate 
of  continued  disobedience  to  the  word  of  Christ,  of  per- 
sistent opposition  to  the  will  of  God,  he  need  not  an- 
nounce some  sensational  sermon  on  "Hell,  its  location, 
duration  and  probable  population"  after  the  manner  of 
some, — a  manner  repellent  to  men  of  serious  mind  in  the 
pulpit  and  in  the  pew.  He  will  in  the  natural  order  of 
his  exposition  come  to  those  searching  parables  of  the 
Talents  and  of  the  Ten  Virgins  and  to  that  solemn  judg- 
ment scene  in  Matthew  or  to  the  parable  of  Dives  and 
Lazarus  in  the  Gospel  of  Luke.  And  this  treatment  of 
difficult  themes  in  the  course  of  an  orderly  unfolding  of 
the  full  contents  of  some  particular  book  of  Scripture  is 
far  and  away  the  most  effective  way  to  use  them. 

There  is  commonly  some  one  great  idea  which  runs 
through  each  book  ready  and  able  to  bind  an  entire  series 
of  expository  sermons  into  a  certain  unity.  The  sermons 
on  Genesis  as  the  book  of  beginnings,  the  beginning  of 


THE  BASIS  OF  THE  SERMON  51 

the  world,  of  human  life,  of  evil,  of  sacrifice,  of  crime, 
of  visible  judgments  upon  evil,  of  covenants,  of  diversity 
of  interest,  of  the  Hebrew  race  and  all  the  rest !  The 
book  of  Exodus  as  the  book  of  deliverance — the  deliver- 
ance from  Egypt,  from  industrial  bondage,  from  political 
slavery,  from  the  weight  of  foolish  and  debasing  super- 
stitions, from  inadequate  moral  standards,  from  the  whole 
list  of  evils  which  differentiated  the  old  life  in  Egypt 
from  the  new  life  to  be  lived  in  the  land  of  promise ! 

The  Gospel  of  Matthew  is  the  Gospel  of  the  kingdom, 
compiled  by  a  Hebrew  for  Hebrews.  It  has  as  its  char- 
acteristic phrase,  these  words  "that  it  might  be  fulfilled." 
It  has  to  do  with  the  spiritualizing  of  the  old  law.  It 
holds  more  quotations  from  the  Old  Testament  than  any 
other  Gospel,  and  it  supplies  most  fully  the  nexus,  between 
the  preparatory  experiences  of  those  Hebrews  and  those 
richer  experiences  wherein  the  highest  hopes  of  the  nation 
had  their  clear  chance  of  fulfillment.  These  peculiar  char- 
acteristics of  the  first  Gospel  will  give  to  a  course  of  ser- 
mons on  Matthew  a  certain  sense  of  unity. 

The  Gospel  of  Mark  is  the  Gospel  of  action,  having  in 
it  none  of  the  longer  discourses  of  Jesus,  no  Sermon  on 
the  Mount,  no  addresses  in  the  Upper  Room,  fewer  of 
the  parables  than  either  of  the  other  Gospels,  but  packed 
with  narratives  of  the  deeds  of  Jesus — its  characteristic 
word,  "straightway!"  From  start  to  finish  it  travels  in 
marching  order  the  high  road  of  action. 

The  Gospel  of  Luke  is  the  Gospel  of  the  Son  of  Man, 
written  by  a  physician  with  a  strong  humanitarian  in- 
istinct,  filled  with  sympathy  for  the  under  man,  for  the 
publican,  for  the  Samaritan,  for  the  lost  sheep,  the  lost 


52  THE  ART  OF  PREACHING 

coin,  the  lost  boy,  for  the  poor  woman  who  was  a  sinner 
in  Simon's  house  and  for  the  rich  man  Zaccheus  who  was 
a  sinner  in  his  own  house,  for  the  sufferer  on  the  Jericho 
road  relieved  by  a  hated,  heretical  Samaritan  whose  only 
title  to  recognition  was  his  kind  heart,  and  for  the  peni- 
tent thief  on  the  cross  carried  along  by  the  sympathy  and 
mercy  of  Jesus  into  paradise — all  these  touches  peculiar 
to  Luke  give  it  that  distinctive  quality  of  the  Gospel  of 
the  Son  of  Man  with  its  intense  humanitarian  feeling. 

The  Gospel  of  John  is  the  Gospel  of  the  Son  of  God. 
It  portrays  our  Lord  mainly  in  his  relation  to  the  indi- 
vidual soul.  It  has  next  to  nothing  in  it  about  the  King- 
dom of  God  or  about  those  problems  of  social  organiza- 
tion which  stand  in  the  way  of  the  realization  of  the 
kingdom.  This  Gospel  is  made  up  in  large  measure  of 
personal  conversations  between  Jesus  and  some  individual, 
— conversations  with  his  mother  at  the  wedding  in  Cana 
of  Galilee,  with  Nicodemus  a  master  in  Israel,  with  the 
woman  of  Samaria  at  Jacob's  well,  with  the  sufferer  lame 
for  thirty-eight  years  at  the  pool  of  Bethesda,  with  the 
man  who  was  blind  from  his  birth,  and  so  on !  Here  is 
the  Good  Shepherd  calling  his  own  sheep  by  name.  He 
deals  with  them  in  that  intimate  personal  contact  which 
is  characteristic  of  the  Fourth  Gospel. 

You  can  see  at  once  how  this  method  of  expository 
preaching  may  therefore  not  only  make  possible  ihose  de- 
sirable qualities  of  unity,  progress  and  a  goal  in  each 
sermon — you  may  so  build  your  course  of  sermons  around 
some  great  cardinal  principle  as  to  bestow  those  three 
desirable  qualities  upon  the  whole  series  based  as  they  are 
upon  some  one  book  of  the  Bible.    And  the  orderly,  sys- 


THE  BASIS  OF  THE  SERMON  53 

tematic,  well-rounded  instruction  which  results  from  such 
a  method  has  the  highest  sort  of  value  for  congregations 
made  up  of  people  who,  owing  to  the  hurry  and  the  stress 
of  modern  life,  do  not  read  their  Bibles  for  themselves 
as  did  their  elders  and  betters  two  generations  ago. 

I  have  practiced  what  I  preach  in  this  matter.  If  I 
had  not  done  so  I  should  never  have  had  the  face  to  stand 
here  and  urge  this  method  of  preaching  upon  you  as  fur- 
nishing the  best  possible  basis  for  the  staple  articles  of 
spiritual  commerce  which  we  undertake  to  offer  in  our 
sermons.  In  the  last  church  I  served,  the  First  Congre- 
gational Church  of  Oakland,  California,  where  I  was 
pastor  for  nearly  fifteen  years,  I  find  from  an  examina- 
tion of  my  record  book  that  during  those  years,  I  preached 
courses  of  expository  sermons  to  that  one  congregation 
as  follows: — From  the  Old  Testament,  six  months  on 
Genesis,  three  months  on  Exodus,  three  months  on  Joshua, 
three  months  on  Judges,  two  months  on  the  life  of  Elijah 
as  recorded  in  Kings,  two  months  on  Job,  six  months  on 
Isaiah,  two  months  on  the  minor  prophets.  And  I  had 
in  preparation  a  six  months'  course  of  sermons  on  first 
and  second  Samuel. 

In  the  New  Testament,  I  preached  for  six  months  on 
Matthew,  six  months  on  Mark,  twelve  months  on  Luke, 
which  to  me  is  the  greatest  and  dearest  book  in  all  the 
Bible,  six  months  on  John,  six  months  on  Acts,  two 
months  on  •  Romans,  three  months  on  first  and  second 
Corinthians,  and  two  months  on  the  Book  of  Revelation. 
When  this  is  added  up  it  means  that  there  was  some 
course  of  expository  sermons  in  process  of  delivery  for 
six  entire  years  of  my  pastorate  there.     And  I  believe 


54  THE  ART  OF  PREACHING 

that  the  testimony  of  at  least  two-thirds  of  the  people  in 
that  church  would  confirm  my  own  belief  that  this  was 
the  most  profitable  portion  of  my  preaching  from  that 
pulpit. 

Some  people  will  take  to  this  method  of  preaching 
straight  off.  Many  others  can  be  speedily  taught  to  like 
it.  And  those  who  do  not  like  it  may  have  their  needs 
attended  to  at  the  other  service  or  by  the  church  across 
the  way.  It  was  never  meant  that  any  one  preacher 
should  preach  with  equal  acceptance  to  all  creation.  It 
would  be  sure  to  spoil  him  with  spiritual  conceit  and  it 
would  be  hard  on  his  brother  ministers  besides.  By  this 
mode  of  preaching  if  you  will  only  strive  to  make  it  in- 
teresting and  effective  you  can  readily  enlist  the  attend- 
ance of  as  many  people  as  you  really  deserve. 

This  systematic  use  of  Scripture  as  the  basis  of  our 
preaching  will  enable  us  in  the  most  natural  way  in  the 
world  to  bring  out  the  methods  and  the  main  findings  of 
modern  Biblical  scholarship.  In  stating  this  point  you 
will  notice  that  I  purposely  avoid  the  use  of  the  phrase 
"Higher  Criticism."  The  very  sound  of  those  familiar 
words  is  irritating  to  certain  minds  in  many  of  our 
churches.  We  may  feel  that  this  is  an  altogether  un- 
reasonable prejudice  but  there  it  is,  a  thing  to  be  reck- 
oned with.  The  flocks  to  which  we  are  called  to  minister 
as  good  shepherds  are  not  made  up  entirely  of  teachable 
and  lovable  lambs — ^we  shall  find  there  also  the  more 
mature  rams  with  stiff  necks  and  horns. 

And  some  of  these  full  grown  rams  have  tremendous 
convictions  about  this  question  of  higher  criticism. 
They  construe  the  word  "criticism"  negatively  always — 


THE  BASIS  OF  THE  SERMON  55 

not  at  all  as  we  do,  as  indicating  the  exercise  of  discrimi- 
nation in  order  to  bring  out  into  clearer  relief  the  more 
valued  portions  of  Scripture  bj  that  process  of  criticism. 
They  think  of  the  critic  as  a  dyspeptic  sort  of  individual 
picking  and  mincing  over  his  food.  When  a  good  thick 
wholesome  slice  of  Scripture  is  laid  before  him,  instead 
of  eating  it  for  his  soul's  good  (asking  no  questions  for 
scholarship's  sake),  he  begins  at  once  to  pick  it  to  pieces. 
He  separates  what  he  regards  as  the  dark  meat  from  the 
light.  He  makes  little  piles  of  J,  E,  D,  and  P  on  his 
plate.  He  becomes  by  virtue  of  his  scholarship  a  fas- 
tidious and  dyspeptic  critic  of  the  heavenly  manna  in  the 
Bible. 

Then  when  the  word  "higher"  is  added  to  the  word 
"critic"  there  comes  that  further  touch  of  supercilious- 
ness in  his  attitude  which  makes  him  altogether  unbear- 
able. He  becomes  in  the  minds  of  many  what  the  late 
Theodore  Roosevelt  would  have  called  "an  undesirable 
citizen."  The  minister  will  do  well  to  leave  that  objec- 
tionable phrase  "the  higher  criticism"  in  his  study  along 
with  all  the  other  theological  patois  which  was  never  in- 
tended for  unordained  human  nature's  daily  food. 

The  results  of  the  higher  criticism  are  not  all  final — 
many  of  them  are  still  mere  tentative  hypotheses.  The 
colors  in  the  Polychrome  Bible  are  not  all  fast — some  of 
these  radiant  and  beautiful  tints  will  probably  change 
with  time  and  further  study — but  the  method  is  here  to 
stay.  !N'ever  again  will  thoughtful  people  generally  study 
the  Bible  as  if  it  were  all  one  solid  block  of  equally  in- 
spired and  equally  authoritative  truth.  They  will  not 
deal  with  it  in  the  mass,  Luke  or  Leviticus,  John  or 


56  THE  ART  OF  PREACHING 

Judges,  every  part  to  be  esteemed  alike  and  applied  alike 
to  human  need.  The  general  method  of  modern  Biblical 
scholarship  is  here  to  stay  and  it  is  for  us  gradually  to 
acquaint  our  people  with  that  method  and  with  those  find- 
ings which  may  be  regarded  as  fairly  established. 

It  will  be  much  better  not  to  label  such  instruction, 
either  as  "Higher  Criticism"  or  as  "modem  Biblical 
scholarship,"  The  wise  parent  does  not  approach  his 
child  saying,  "Now  this  bottle  contains  castor  oil.  You 
will  not  like  it.  Children  never  have  liked  it.  It  has  a 
very  disagreeable  taste  until  you  get  used  to  it.  But  it 
will  be  good  for  you,  and  it  will  remove  certain  things 
from  your  system  which  you  are  better  off  without.  And 
whether  you  like  it  or  not  I  propose  to  give  you  a  good  big 
dose  of  it."  Such  a  parent  would  need  to  study  the  psy- 
chology of  the  child  mind  for  at  least  another  semester. 
He  need  not  tell  the  child  that  the  castor  oil  is  ice  cream, 
but  he  can  employ  a  wiser  method  of  administering  his 
treatment.  The  new  truth  about  the  Bible  had  better  be 
offered  as  a  natural  part  of  the  instruction  we  bring  with- 
out any  label  on  it — let  it  be  put  forth  simply  for  what 
it  is  worth. 

It  is  just  as  well  also  for  the  young  minister  in  a  new 
parish  not  to  be  in  too  great  a  hurry  about  promulgating 
the  very  latest  views  which  he  picked  up  at  the  Divinity 
School  or  gained  in  his  last  weeks'  reading  of  the  Hibhert 
Journal.  There  is  nothing  dishonest  or  cowardly  in  hav- 
ing some  regard  to  the  principle  of  reserve.  The  young 
man  cannot  possibly  tell  the  people  all  he  knows  in  the 
first  three  months  of  his  pastorate.  He  cannot  do  it 
simply  because  he  knows  so  much.     It  will  take  him  at 


THE  BASIS  OF  THE  SERMON  57 

least  six  months  to  tell  them  all  he  knows.  It  becomes  a 
question  therefore  as  to  what  shall  come  first  and  what 
second  and  what  third. 

And  it  is  not  imperative  that  the  more  belated  minds 
in  that  parish  which  may  be  located  somewhat  off  the 
turnpike  of  modern  thought,  should  all  be  set  right  in 
their  views  as  to  the  composite  character  of  the  Pentateuch 
or  the  dual  authorship  of  Isaiah,  or  the  late  date  of 
Daniel,  or  the  problem  of  the  Fourth  Gospel,  without  the 
least  delay.  When  the  people  have  come  to  know  their 
minister  and  to  trust  him  and  to  love  him  as  a  result  of 
his  helpful  constructive  preaching,  they  will  be  in  a  mood 
to  allow  him  a  much  larger  latitude  in  the  inculcation  of 
these  new  views  which  might  at  first  seem  to  be  revolu- 
tionary. They  will  let  him  have  his  two  Isaiahs  if  he 
wants  them, — they  would  let  him  have  twenty  Isaiahs  if 
they  thought  that  he  would  feel  easier  in  his  mind 
about  it. 

Milk  for  babes  and  strong  meat  for  men !  You  are  not 
acting  dishonorably  toward  the  baby  or  showing  yourself 
cowardly  or  insincere  if  you  offer  him  a  bottle  of  milk 
or  even  a  satisfying  meal  of  Mellen's  food,  knowing  all 
the  while  that  you  have  a  big  rich  porterhouse  steak 
there  in  the  refrigerator.  You  know  full  well  the 
splendid  nutritive  values  of  good  steak,  but  you  know 
also  that  so  far  as  the  baby  is  concerned  the  hour  for 
porterhouse  has  not  yet  come.  The  same  wise  principles 
of  orderly  adaptation  are  to  be  regarded  in  feeding  con- 
gregations upon  the  results  of  the  latest  Biblical  scholar- 
ship. 

When  the  better  methods  of  Bible  study  are  thus  in- 


58  THE  ART  OF  PREACHING 

troduced  to  a  congregation  in  connection  with  courses  of 
positive  helpful  sermons  on  the  books  whose  date  and 
authorship  and  component  parts  naturally  come  up  for 
consideration,  the  people  receive  the  new  views  according 
to  the  scriptural  method.  It  is  here  a  little,  there  a  little, 
line  upon  line,  precept  upon  precept,  instead  of  having 
a  whole  chapter  of  Driver  or  Moffatt  flung  at  them  all  at 
once.  By  this  gradual  method  the  needed  operation  is 
performed  without  nervous  shock  or  much  loss  of  blood. 
The  swollen  and  noxious  tumors  of  ignorance  and  preju- 
dice are  gradually  removed.  And  the  people,  scarcely 
realizing  what  radical  changes  have  taken  place  in  their 
thinking,  find  themselves  mentally  and  spiritually  con- 
valescent. 

And  when  the  preacher  is  inculcating  these  newer  views 
in  this  incidental  manner,  he  is  the  more  likely  to  do  it 
in  a  way  that  is  clear,  sweet  and  reasonable,  because  it 
is  part  and  parcel  of  a  set  of  sermons  possessed  by  a  very 
direct  spiritual  purpose.  It  is  just  as  easy  to  be  opinion- 
ated and  disagreeable  on  the  liberal  side  of  the  fence  as 
it  is  on  the  conservative  side.  It  is  just  as  easy  for  the 
off  horse  to  be  stiff-necked  and  hard  in  the  mouth,  to  be 
narrow  and  dogmatic,  as  it  is  for  the  near  horse,  if  he 
happens  to  be  that  kind  of  a  horse.  The  least  note  of  in- 
tellectual contempt  for  so-called  "old  fogies"  or  mental 
scorn  for  those  who  may  not  be  ready  to  accept  his  newer 
and  indeed  more  valid  conceptions  of  the  Bible,  will  at 
once  vitiate  all  the  good  influence  of  the  more  competent 
instruction.  "The  wisdom  that  is  from  above  is  first 
pure,  then  peaceable,  gentle  and  easy  to  be  entreated,  full 
of  mercy  and  good  fruits,  without  partiality  and  without 


THE  BASIS  OF  THE  SERMON  59 

hypocrisy."  And  such  sound  knowledge  makes  men  wise 
unto  salvation  and  prepares  them  for  good  work. 

It  were  better  for  the  man  who  is  to  preach  upon  the 
findings  of  the  higher  criticism  to  weigh  at  least  one 
hundred  and  sixty  pounds,  to  possess  a  mellow  baritone 
voice,  to  be  a  man  able  to  digest  his  meals  without  con- 
scious efiFort  and  to  sleep  soundly  at  night.  The  man  with 
dyspeptic  tendencies  or  of  nervous,  irritable  habit,  with 
a  harsh,  rasping  voice,  might  well  leave  the  task  of  un- 
folding the  more  radical  views  advanced  by  modem  Bib- 
lical scholarship  to  his  brethren  who  possess  that  more 
fortunate  build. 

But  where  this  work  of  thorough,  competent  scriptural 
instruction  is  carried  on  in  the  light  of  the  best  that 
genuine  scholarship  has  brought  us  and  in  a  mood  at  once 
sympathetic  and  constructive,  the  outcome  will  have  price- 
less value.  It  will  help  to  make  this  ancient  literature 
habitable  and  ministrant  to  the  modern  mind.  It  will 
help  to  recover  it  as  a  mighty  spiritual  weapon  to  the 
hands  of  those  who  have  felt  themselves  impelled  by  im- 
possible views  of  the  Bible  to  lay  it  down.  There  are  in 
all  our  congregations  teachers,  lawyers,  cultured  business 
men,  fathers  and  mothers,  who  have  found  themselves 
unable  to  use  the  Bible  in  the  old  mechanical  way  with 
any  sense  of  intellectual  honesty.  They  will  hail  with 
delight  the  day  when  they  can  use  it  again  in  this  more 
vital  fashion  made  possible  by  a  better  understanding  of 
the  methods  of  its  production  and  by  a  truer  appreciation 
of  its  abiding  and  classical  worth  as  a  means  of  spiritual 
ministry. 

This  work  well  done  will  also  save  from  shipwreck  of 


60  THE  ART  OF  PREACHING 

faith  thousands  of  our  young  people  as  they  go  up  to  col- 
lege. When  they  begin  to  walk  in  the  light  of  profounder 
study  in  philosophy,  and  in  science,  in  history  and  in  lit- 
erature, the  light  of  faith  which  is  in  them  will  not  sud- 
denly prove  to  be  darkness.  The  badly  taught  youth  fur- 
nish the  major  part  of  those  who  are  said  to  lose  their 
religious  faith  as  a  result  of  their  study  at  college.  There 
are  many  more  young  men  and  young  women  falling  over 
the  cliff  of  unbelief  in  reacting  from  erroneous  views 
which  become  impossible  by  reason  of  more  thorough 
study  than  are  thus  precipitated  through  their  acquaint- 
ance with  the  more  modern  and  more  tenable  views  of 
Scripture. 

''He  had  in  his  hand  a  little  book,  open."  Here  was 
the  main  instrument  of  his  power  when  that  mighty  angel 
appeared  in  the  vision  of  the  seer  as  recorded  in  the  book 
of  Revelation.  He  was  clothed  with  a  cloud.  He  wore 
a  rainbow  on  his  head.  His  face  was  shining  like  the 
sun  because  he  was  a  light  bearer.  He  stood,  ready  for 
the  widest  usefulness,  his  right  foot  upon  the  land  and 
his  left  foot  upon  the  sea.  And  in  his  hand  as  the  main 
instrument  of  his  power  he  held  "a.  little  book  open." 

He  refused  the  sword  of  military  conquest;  he  did  not 
take  up  the  coin  of  a  far-reaching  commerce;  he  showed 
himself  indifferent  to  the  swinging  censer  of  some  more 
potent  ecclesiasticism  casting  its  spell  upon  the  hearts  of 
men.  He  held  in  his  hand  the  little  book  because  his 
main  reliance  was  to  be  upon  the  powerful  influence  of 
instruction  and  persuasion,  of  moral  appeal  and  spiritual 
entreaty. 

We  do  not  know  what  book  it  was.    We  may  feel  rea- 


THE  BASIS  OF  THE  SERMON  61 

sonably  sure,  however,  that  it  was  not  a  trigonometry.  It 
was  probably  the  best  book  on  which  the  angel  could  lay 
his  hand.  And  it  was  a  little  book — not  a  ponderous  tome 
of  theological  lore;  it  was  not  even  an  elaborate  leather- 
bound  octavo  family  Bible  large  enough  to  contain  all  the 
canonical  Scriptures  of  the  Old  and  New  Testaments  and 
weighing  some  fourteen  pounds.  It  was  a  little  book  con- 
cise and  usable.  It  was  perhaps  a  compact  statement  of 
those  essential  spiritual  verities  freed  from  the  inevitable 
deposits  left  by  the  ruder  practices  of  antiquity,  freed 
also  from  those  local  and  temporary  elements  which  must 
of  necessity  recede  in  interest  by  the  gradual  cancellation 
wrought  by  the  process  of  spiritual  development.  We  may 
not  go  astray  in  thinking  of  the  little  book  which  God's 
messenger  held  in  his  hand  open,  as  containing  the  net 
result  of  wise,  patient,  discriminating  study,  setting  forth 
in  briefer  compass  and  in  clearer  phrase  those  divine  es- 
sentials in  our  Bible  which  are  able  to  make  men  wise 
unto  salvation  and  to  furnish  them  thoroughly  for  all  good 
work. 

Here  then  is  our  task — we  are  to  put  the  contents  of 
that  little  book  into  the  minds  and  into  the  hearts  of  those 
who  hear,  with  all  the  saving  power  which  inheres  in  those 
sublime  truths.  And  because  this  vital  portion  of  the 
Scriptures  does  furnish  us  "a  book  of  final  values  for  all 
who  would  live  nobly,"  we  make  it  the  sufficient  and  en- 
during basis  of  our  preaching. 


Ill 

THE    CONTENT    OF    THE    SERMON 

IN"  the  previous  lecture  I  sought  to  indicate  that  the 
basis  of  the  sermon  was  to  be  found  in  the  teaching 
of  Scripture.  The  topical  or  textual  sermon  will 
grow  naturally  out  of  some  one  statement  of  Scripture. 
The  expository  sermon  will  come  from  the  more  extended 
and  systematic  interpretation  of  a  larger  portion  of  Scrip- 
ture. There  will  be  added  a  certain  power  and  authority 
to  our  preaching  by  the  very  fact  that  it  does  root  down 
into  this  literature  which  now  holds,  and  in  my  judgment, 
will  continue  to  hold,  a  central  and  commanding  place  in 
the  religious  life  of  the  world. 

But  in  order  that  the  sermon  should  find  its  points  of 
contact  with  modern  life,  there  will  come  of  necessity  the 
importation  of  material  from  many  other  sources.  I  wish, 
therefore,  in  this  lecture  to  speak  on  the  assembling  of 
the  material  which  will  make  up  the  body  of  the  sermon. 

In  the  order  of  time,  I  believe  the  material  should  be 
gathered  before  the  plan  is  definitely  made.  If  you  were 
building  a  house  you  would  have  the  blue  prints  first. 
Then  you  would  fare  forth  to  assemble  the  requisite  quan- 
tities of  stone,  boards,  bricks,  mortar,  glass  and  all  the 
rest  to  carry  out  your  plan. 
V  But  the  making  of  a  sermon  is  not  carpenter  work — 
it  is  a  much  more  vital  process.  The  best  sermons  grow. 
They  grow  mainly  out  of  a  man's  interiors.     The  sermon 

62 


THE  CONTENT  OF  THE  SERMON      63 

is  the  showing  forth,  the  manifestation  of  the  man  him- 
self. And  because  sermons  do  thus  grow,  the  best  plans 
are  conceived  and  developed  in  the  immediate  presence 
of  the  material- to  be  utilized  and  with  a  clear  vision  of 
the  end  to  be  sought  in  the  preparation  and  the  preaching 
of  that  particular  sermon. 

When  jou  are  ready  to  assemble  your  material  for  the 
sermon,  enter  into  your  closet  with  your  text  and  shut  the 
door.  Shut  out,  for  the  time  being,  all  the  commentaries, 
shut  out  the  Bible  dictionary,  and  the  religious  encyclo- 
pedia. Shut  out  all  the  books  of  sermons  and  of  illus- 
tration, upon  which  you  might  be  tempted  to  lay  your 
hands.  Sit  down  there  with  your  subject  before  the  Fa- 
ther who  seeth  in  secret.  By  the  exercise  of  your  own 
unaided  strength  compel  that  text  to  give  you,  alone  and 
single-handed,  a  fuller  measure  of  its  deeper  meaning. 
It  was  Richter  who  said,  "Do  not  read  until  you  have 
thought  yourself  hungry.  Do  not  write  until  you  have 
read  yourself  full." 

Brood  over  your  text  and  your  topic.  Brood  over  them 
until  they  become  mellow  and  responsive.  You  will  hatch 
out  of  them  a  whole  flock  of  promising  ideas  as  you  cause 
the  tiny  germs  of  life  there  contained  to  expand  and 
develop. 

Then  in  a  more  strenuous  mood  wrestle  with  your  theme 
as  Jacob  wrestled  with  the  angel.  Say  to  it  as  you  hold 
it  off  at  arm's  length,  "Tell  me  thy  name.  Show  me  thy 
nature.    I  will  not  let  thee  go  except  thou  bless  me." 

It  will  be  all  the  better  if  this  process  can  go  on  for  a 
long  time  and  not  be  postponed  until  Saturday  forenoon 
when  you  are  actually  making  your  final  preparation  for 


64  THE  AET  OF  PREACHING  *^ 

next  Sunday.  If  a  minister  can  hold  a  certain  truth  in 
his  mind  for  a  month,  for  six  months  perhaps,  for  a  year 
it  may  be,  before  he  preaches  on  it  he  will  find  new  ideas 
perpetually  sprouting  out  of  it,  until  it  shows  an  abun- 
dant growth.  He  may  meditate  on  it  as  he  walks  the 
streets,  or  as  he  spends  some  hours  on  a  train,  when  his 
eyes  are  too  tired  to  read. 

He  may  indeed  brood  upon  it  in  the  night-time.  It  is 
better  for  the  minister  not  to  take  his  church  or  his  sermon 
to  bed  with  him  habitually — a  pulpit  is  a  splendid  thing 
to  preach  from,  but  it  is  not  a  good  bed-fellow.  Yet,  for 
all  that,  I  have  gotten  some  of  my  own  best  sermons  at 
night.  I  have  sometimes  gotten  out  of  bed  in  the  middle 
of  the  night  to  put  down  the  thoughts  which  came  to  me, 
for  fear  I  might  forget  them  before  morning.  But  how- 
ever and  whenever  it  is  done,  your  final  work  of  prepara- 
tion will  be  made  more  expeditious  and  effective  when 
you  actually  settle  down  to  put  the  sermon  in  shape  for 
the  following  Sunday,  if  there  has  been  a  fruitful  period 
of  preliminary  brooding. 

When  you  are  actually  engaged  in  assembling  the  ma- 
terial for  a  particular  sermon,  write  down  everything  that 
comes  to  you  bearing  upon  that  text  and  topic.  Write 
down  what  you  saw  in  the  text  when  you  first  chose  it. 
Write  down  all  the  associated  ideas  which  now  occur  to 
you.  You  may  not  use  them  all  but  it  is  well  to  put  them 
down. 

Write  down  the  main  outstanding  ideas  which  that 
topic  suggests,  of  course,  and  the  lesser  ones  as  well.  You 
want  the  whole  family,  big  and  little,  in  plain  sight  when 
you  come  to  shape  up  your  message.     Write  down  any 


THE  CONTENT  OF  THE  SERMON  65 

fact  in  history,  or  any  bit  of  poetry,  or  any  useful  appli- 
cation, or  any  valuable  illuminating  illustration,  or  any 
coordinate  passage  of  Scripture  which  occurs  to  you  as 
suitable  for  your  use. 

Some  great  big  thoughts  will  come — regular  sequoia 
trees  like  the  ones  in  California.  You  have  no  business 
to  preach  if  ideas  do  not  come  to  you  at  times  so  big  and 
so  inspiring  that  they  set  you  walking  the  floor  and  talk- 
ing to  yourself  out  loud  through  sheer  joy  of  mental  pos- 
session and  of  spiritual  discovery.  And  some  quite  ordi- 
nary thoughts  will  come,  not  sequoias  at  all  but  oaks  and 
elms,  with  good  material  in  them — put  them  all  down. 
And  some  little  spindling  thoughts  will  come,  mere  sap- 
lings, small  white  birches  scarcely  large  enough  for  hoop 
poles  or  for  lath,  mere  underbrush  in  the  forests  of 
thought — put  them  down,  too.  They  may  grow  while  you 
are  getting  your  sermon  into  shape  and  prove  valuable 
after  all. 

Put  all  these  ideas  of  yours  down  in  writing,  just  a 
few  words,  enough  to  fix  the  idea,  and  keep  your  mind 
reaching  for  more  all  the  time  as  if  it  were  never  to  see 
another  book  as  long  as  it  lived.  This  is  the  way  to  train 
the  mind  in  productiveness.  You  will  by  this  method 
keep  your  own  mental  processes  fresh,  original,  creative. 
If  you  swamp  the  mind  right  at  the  start  by  emptying 
into  it  three  or  four  barrels  of  ideas  from  the  commen- 
taries and  another  bucket  full  out  of  Hastings'  Dictionary, 
and  then  sprinkle  it  copiously  with  what  you  have  dipped 
out  of  some  encyclopedia  of  illustration,  or  of  "poetry 
and  song,"  your  mental  powers  will  be  almost  sure  to  loaf 
on  you.     These  mental  faculties  of  ours  are  touchy  in  the 


66  THE  ART  OF  PREACHING 

extreme  at  this  point.  You  have  no  idea  how  sensitive 
they  are  until  you  have  had  it  out  with  them  a  few  times. 
If  you  load  your  mind  up  from  the  outside,  right  at  the 
start  without  giving  it  a  chance  to  think,  it  will  turn  upon 
you  in  a  fine  state  of  pout.  It  will  arch  its  neck  and  say 
to  you  in  haughty  fashion,  "Very  well,  if  you  think  I 
don't  know  anything  and  can't  produce  anything  of  my 
very  own,  then  I  will  take  my  doll  and  go  home." 

Put  down  all  of  those  ideas  which  you  have  brought 
to  the  birth  yourself,  unaided.  They  are  more  precious 
for  your  mental  unfolding  than  rubies  and  diamonds  and 
much  fine  gold.  Put  them  down,  preferably  on  scraps  of 
paper,  backs  of  old  letters,  fragments  of  envelopes,  waste 
paper,  anything  which  comes  to  your  hand.  This  is  much 
better  every  way  than  to  use  nice,  long,  clean  sheets  of 
foolscap.  It  is  not  a  mere  matter  of  economy, — you  will 
find  it  easier  to  arrange  and  organize  these  loose  bits 
when  you  come  to  set  your  material  in  order. 

Keep  on  putting  down  all  the  ideas  which  come  to  your 
mind,  thinking  hard  all  the  while.  You  need  not  hurry 
this  process.  It  is  one  of  the  most  important  mental  trans- 
actions in  which  you  will  be  privileged  to  engage.  It  is 
this  method  which  causes  the  mind  to  grow  in  real  pro- 
ductive power. 

Q  Wait  for  ideas !  "Wait  patiently  for  them,  but  not  pas- 
sively nor  sleepily.  Let  your  mind  all  the  while  be  alert 
and  alive.  The  mouth  of  your  mind  should  at  such  times 
fairly  water  for  ideas.  Wait  for  them  as  a  girl  waits  for 
her  lover,  eagerly,  hungrily,  wistfully.  Wait  for  them 
as  a  mother  waits  for  the  sound  of  her  child's  voice  when 
he  comes  home  from  his  first  day  of  school,  or  from  his 


THE  CONTENT  OF  THE  SERMON      67 

first  evening  out  at  a  party.  Wait  in  that  sort  of  active 
expectation  and  your  very  attitude  will  hurry  the  coming 
of  those  ideas.  The  very  thought  of  the  maiden,  waiting 
in  all  her  loveliness  and  impatient  for  his  coming,  quick- 
ens the  feet  of  every  lover  who  has  any  red  blood  in  his 
veins.  The  latent  ideas  in  your  own  brain  and  the  ideas 
which  are  out  yonder  in  waiting  will  in  like  manner  feel 
the  tug  and  pull  of  the  earnest  expectation  you  are  exer- 
cising, and  that  will  quicken  their  coming. 

While  you  are  doing  this,  open  all  the  front  doors  of 
your  mind,  and  all  the  back  doors,  and  the  side  doors, 
and  the  windows.  Be  just  as  approachable  and  inviting  as 
you  know  how  to  be.  Memory  will  be  bringing  back  what 
you  have  read  and  seen  and  felt.  The  association  of  ideas 
will  bring  forward  the  first  cousins  and  the  second  and 
third  cousins  of  those  ideas  which  you  have  already  put 
down,  together  with  their  uncles  and  their  aunts.  You 
will  presently  gather  in  all  the  more  distant  relatives  of 
your  text  in  the  cognate  truths  which  will  come  to  you 
imtil  you  will  have  a  great  family  of  thoughts.  They  will 
outnumber  the  household  of  Brigham  Young  and  will  be 
possessed  of  a  spiritual  quality  infinitely  superior. 

You  will  find  also  as  you  linger  in  this  process  that 
entirely  new  ideas  will  come  to  the  birth.  You  will  see 
aspects  of  the  truth  which  never  rose  upon  your  vision 
before.  Some  days  the  material  for  your  sermon  will 
come  in  a  regular  down-pour.  Other  days  there  will  be 
a  nice  gentle  rain  of  refreshing  ideas  and  other  days  only 
a  thin  sprinkle  and  drizzle  of  thought.  This  will  depend 
in  considerable  measure  upon  what  you  ate  the  night  be- 
fore and  on  how  well  you  slept  and  on  how  the  baby  be- 


68  THE  ART  OF  PREACHING 

haved  through  the  wee,  small  hours.  It  will  depend  also 
upon  what  subject  you  have  in  hand,  and  on  how  well 
you  warm  up  to  that  particular  line  of  effort.  But  do  it 
nevertheless — I  would  almost  say  that  this  will  be  the 
most  profitable  time  you  will  spend  in  the  preparation  of 
the  sermon  and  in  the  development  of  your  own  mental 
powers. 

We  need  to  use  every  possible  resource  to  make  our 
preaching  fresh,  interesting,  vital.  People  get  dreadfully 
used  to  us  at  best,  when  we  have  preached  to  them  for 
ten  or  fifteen  or  twenty  years  from  the  same  pulpit.  And 
dullness,  pokiness,  monotony,  "make  the  word  of  God  of 
no  effect"  as  we  preach  it  quite  as  surely  as  all  the  deadly 
heresies  condemned  by  the  Councils  of  the  Church.  It 
was  Prof.  Ernest  Hocking  of  Harvard  University  who 
said,  "A  theory  is  false  if  it  is  not  interesting.  A  propo- 
sition which  falls  on  the  mind  so  dully  as  to  excite  no 
enthusiasm  has  not  attained  to  the  level  of  truth.  Though 
the  words  be  accurate,  the  import  has  leaked  away  from 
them  and  the  meaning  is  not  conveyed.  Whatever  doc- 
trine tends  to  leave  men  unstrung,  content,  complacent, 
and  at  ease,  is  a  treachery  and  a  deceit.  We  have  to  re- 
quire of  our  faith  not  what  is  agreeable  to  the  indolent 
spirit  but  what  is  at  once  a  spur  and  a  promise." 

You  must  therefore  produce  something  that  people  will 
listen  to  with  interest — if  they  will  not  listen,  it  is  just 
the  same  as  if  you  did  not  say  anything  at  all.  No  matter 
how  good  your  medicine  is  under  competent  analysis,  if 
you  cannot  induce  the  people  to  take  it,  it  will  not  do 
them  any  good.  The  element  of  freshness  and  variety 
is  an  element  of  power.     "He  spake,  not  as  the  Scribes" 


THE  CONTENT  OF  THE  SERMON      69 

— their  speech  was  filled  to  the  brim  with  dull  moral 
platitudes.  The  people  were  bored  beyond  measure  by 
the  utterances  of  the  Scribes.  But  His  utterance,  in  the 
very  style  of  it  as  well  as  in  the  substance  of  it,  was  as 
fresh  as  a  bunch  of  roses  with  the  dew  of  heaven  still 
upon  them. 

When  you  are  assembling  the  material  for  a  sermon 
allow  a  very  free  immigration  of  all  sorts  of  material  into 
your  mind  for  the  time  being !  Let  the  bars  down  !  Have 
no  strict  Ellis  Island  regulations  to  keep  out  ideas.  Let 
them  all  in  whether  they  come  first  cabin  or  steerage,' — 
you  can  sort  them  out  later.  You  can  reject  the  unsuit- 
able material  when  you  come  to  the  immediate  work  of 
preparing  your  sermon.  You  can  also  lay  aside  those 
ideas  which  are  not  germane  to  your  immediate  purpose 
to  be  used  in  some  later  sermon.  If  you  are  planning 
to  preach  on  the  N^orth  Pole,  you  may  think  of  something 
very  brilliant  and  helpful  to  be  said  about  the  South 
Pole.  Put  it  down  immediately  on  one  of  those  scraps 
of  paper — ^you  cannot  use  it  now,  but  the  day  will  come 
when  you  may  want  to  preach  on  the  South  Pole. 

When  you  have  gotten  your  material  all  together,  then 
grind  it  all  down  with  a  genuinely  Christian  purpose, 
serious  and  vital.  You  will  find  that  you  can  use  a  great 
variety  of  material  if  you  only  lay  hold  of  it  in  that  de- 
termined thorough-going  fashion.  The  hen  eats  all  sorts 
of  things,  nice,  clean  corn  and  barley,  bugs  and  worms, 
scraps  from  the  table,  bits  of  bone  and  gravel,  old,  odd 
ends  of  almost  anything  that  can  be  swallowed.  And  it 
all  reappears  in  the  general  make-up  of  the  hen  as  light 
meat  and  dark  meat  and  as  good  fresh  eggs.     The  hen 


70  THE  ART  OF  PREACHING 

has  strong  digestive  and  assimilative  powers.  Pretty 
much  anything  is  good  grist  which  comes  to  her  mill. 
You  also  need  something  corresponding  to  an  intellectual 
gizzard  to  deal  in  similar  fashion  with  your  varied  mate- 
rial as  you  come  to  shape  it  into  useful  sermons. 

In  the  earlier  years  of  one's  ministry  it  is  well  to  spend 
a  great  deal  of  time  in  doing  what  I  have  been  here 
describing  at  some  length.  It  stretches  the  mind.  It  de- 
velops in  it  reach  and  grasp.  It  exercises  its  genuine 
creative  capacity.  It  keeps  it  from  becoming  soft,  fat, 
lazy,  as  all  those  parasites  are  which  feed  perpetually 
upon  the  vitality  of  other  beings.  It  increases  a  man's 
originality  and  individuality  as  a  preacher.  You  cannot 
prepare  a  sermon  at  all  unless  you  have  something  to  say 
— something  of  your  very  own.  It  is  tragic  where  this 
stinging  comment  is  made  upon  some  lazy  minister's  ser- 
mon— "He  had  nothing  to  say  and  he  said  it." 

You  will  not  feel  like  leaving  the  ministry  and  going 
into  the  life  insurance  business  if  your  mind  does  not 
show  itself  as  full  of  ideas  as  the  Britannica  Encyclo- 
pedia is  of  information,  right  off.  Your  general  content 
and  your  own  personal  productiveness  will  grow.  They 
will  grow  by  hard  study  in  your  own  chosen  line;  they 
will  grow  by  your  general  reading  in  history,  biography, 
poetry,  essays,  fiction,  and  all  the  rest — the  highest  office 
of  reading  is  to  be  found  in  the  way  it  gives  mental 
stimulus,  thus  developing  productiveness  in  the  mind  of 
the  reader.  I  care  much  less  for  a  book  which  is  full  of 
thoughts,  laid  in  neat  rows  along  its  pages,  than  I  do  for 
one  which  by  its  own  rugged,  stimulating  challenge  causes 
me  to  think  thoughts  of  my  own. 


THE  CONTENT  OF  THE  SERMON     71 

You  will  grow  bj  your  own  independent  observation 
and  reflection.  You  will  grow  by  trayel,  in  your  own 
land,  and,  I  trust,  in  other  lands.  You  will  grow  by  the 
experiences  of  life  and  death,  by  the  sins  and  sorrows,  the 
struggles  and  the  defeats,  the  triumphs  and  the  glories  in 
which  you  will  either  personally  participate  or  sympa- 
thetically share.  The  rightly  used  mind  will  perpetually 
become  more  and  more  productive  by  this  process. 

When  you  have  taken  a  thousand  sermons  out  of  your 
mind  you  will  feel  much  better  able  to  take  out  another 
thousand  than  you  sometimes  feel  now  in  taking  out  one 
more  after  you  have  preached  a  dozen  or  so  to  the  same 
congregation.  I  know  this  by  personal  experience  at  once 
painful  and  blessed.  In  my  first  church,  after  I  had 
preached  about  three  months,  I  felt  that  I  had  told  the 
people  all  that  I  knew  or  was  ever  likely  to  know,  three 
times  over.  I  looked  at  those  Sundays  stretching  away 
into  the  future  interminably  with  such  dismay  as  would 
have  sent  me  out  of  the  ministry  had  I  not  been  ashamed 
to  confess  failure  at  the  end  of  so  short  a  period  of  trial. 

But  I  have  been  preaching  now  for  thirty-three  years 
and  in  round  numbers  about  a  hundred  sermons  a  year. 
And  I  never  felt  so  sure  as  I  do  right  now  that  I  could 
keep  on  indefinitely,  taking  sermons  out  of  my  mind 
Sunday  after  Sunday  with  some  measure  of  freshness  and 
of  worth  in  each  one.  And  this  has  resulted  from  inces- 
sant drill  and  training,  stretching  out  for  a  full  third 
of  a  century. 

You  will  find  that  the  sermons  you  enjoy  preaching  the  O 
most  and  the  ones  which  actually  accomplish  the  most 
good  in  the  lives  of  your  people  will  be  those  sermons 


72  THE  ART  OF  PREACHING 

whicli  you  take  most  largely  out  of  your  own  interiors. 
They  are  bone  of  your  bone,  flesh  of  your  flesh,  the  chil- 
dren of  your  own  mental  labor,  the  output  of  your  own 
creative  energy.  The  sermons  which  are  garbled  and  com- 
piled will  always  have  a  kind  of  second-hand,  warmed- 
over  flavor  about  them.  The  sermons  which  live  and 
move  and  enter  into  the  temple,  walking  and  leaping  and 
praising  God,  the  sermons  which  enter  into  the  hearts  of 
men  causing  them  to  mount  up  with  wings  like  eagles 
and  to  walk  in  the  way  of  duty  and  not  faint — these  real 
sermons  are  the  ones  which  are  actually  born  from  the 
vital  energies  of  the  man  who  utters  them. 

'Now,  after  you  have  conscientiously  and  resolutely  put 
forth  all  that  independent,  unaided  effort,  you  are  ready 
for  the  books.  The  commentaries  will  not  do  you  any 
harm  now  if  they  desire  to  have  a  word  with  you.  If 
you  had  resorted  to  them  at  first  you  might  have  been 
tempted  to  steal  most  of  your  ideas.  You  find  now  that 
you  have  already  dug  out  some  of  the  best  things  which 
the  commentaries  contain — they  are  yours.  They  are 
yours  by  the  right  of  discovery.  You  will  feel  glad  of 
course  and  humbly  grateful  that  Driver  and  Sanday, 
George  Adam  Smith,  and  George  F.  Moore  have  shown 
themselves  equally  wise  and  competent  in  advancing  some 
of  the  very  same  interpretations  which  have  occurred  to 
you.  You  will  not  now  be  swamped  nor  hurt  by  the  sug- 
gestions made  to  you  by  those  gentlemen  possessed  as  they 
are  of  thorough  scholarship  and  of  remarkable  insight. 

Let  me  say  (to  the  younger  ministers  especially)  for 
your  own  highest  development,  that  it  would  be  well  to 
avoid    the    purely    homiletic    commentaries.      Matthew; 


THE  CONTENT  OF  THE  SERMON      73 

Henry,  for  example,  was  a  learned  and  devout  man  in  his 
day  and  generation.  His  mind  was  full  of  beautiful 
thoughts.  But  his  commentaries  are  a  delusion  and  a 
snare  to  every  young  minister.  I  had  a  set  of  them  given 
to  me  in  my  early  ministry  and  I  used  them  for  about 
two  years.  I  found  that  they  were  not  to  my  profit  and 
I  gave  them  away.  They  were  the  declared  enemies  of 
independent  study  and  of  original  thinking.  I  also  had 
a  feeling  that  I  might  lose  my  own  soul  if  I  kept  myself 
surrounded  with  such  books.  So  I  unselfishly  gave  them 
to  a  home  missionary — to  imperil  his  soul  perhaps. 

The  commentaries  of  the  homiletic  type  develop  bad 
intellectual  habits.  You  will  be  tempted  to  pick  out 
ready-made  sermons  with  introductions  and  divisions, 
with  applications  and  exhortations  all  cut  and  dried — • 
especially  dried — and  ready  to  use.  The  clothes  which 
are  made  to  order  always  fit  better  than  the  ready-mades ; 
and  the  sermons  which  are  cut  out  and  put  together  espe- 
cially for  the  congregation  which  is  to  hear  them,  are 
always  better  than  the  ready-made  articles,  even  when  the 
ready-mades  are  found  in  such  respectable  stores  as  those 
kept  by  Lange  and  Matthew  Henry. 

I  would  also  cast  out  all  those  tempting  encyclopedias 
of  illustration.  There  are  volumes  on  sale  which  contain 
vast  collections  of  illustrations  and  stories  applicable  to 
every  situation  in  life.  They  are  all  there  arranged  in 
alphabetical  order  and  "ready  to  serve,"  like  the  soups 
and  the  spaghetti  advertised  in  the  street  cars,  only  not 
nearly  so  appetizing.  But  the  man  who  preceded  you 
may  have  used  the  same  encyclopedia  of  illustration.  The 
people  in  the  congregation  may  have  already  eaten  all  of 


74  THE  ART  OF  PREACHING 

those  "fifty-seven  varieties"  of  canned  goods  several  times 
over.  Your  predecessor  in  that  pnlpit  may  indeed  have 
so  far  forgotten  himself — even  ordained  flesh  sometimes 
shows  itself  weak  at  this  point,  though  the  spirit  be  will- 
ing— as  to  tell  some  of  those  thrilling  stories  as  experi- 
ences of  his  own.  If  you  begin  to  tell  them  all  over  again, 
as  personal  experiences  which  have  come  to  you,  your 
people  will  have  thoughts  in  their  hearts. 

The  imported  article,  especially  where  a  man  gets  it  in 
such  large  invoices  as  are  found  in  those  encyclopedias  of 
illustration,  is  never  quite  equal  in  flavor  or  in  effective- 
ness to  the  home  grown.  Eschew  these  shipments  of 
manufactured  illustrations  and  keep  a  sharp  eye  out  all 
the  while  for  suitable  illustrations  growing  in  your  own 
familiar  fields — there  are  no  others  so  good. 

In  a  second-hand  book  store  in  Boston  I  once  saw  dis- 
played three  big  fat  volumes  entitled  "Thirty  Thousand 
Thoughts," — marked  down  to  $10,00.  This  was  reason- 
fable,  surely.  It  meant  thirty  thoughts  for  a  cent.  I  do 
not  know  whether  the  tariff  enacted  by  the  Democratic 
Congress  during  that  winter  increasing  the  number  of 
commodities  on  the  free  list  had  aided  in  this  direction 
or  not.  It  assured  me  at  any  rate  that  the  high  cost  of 
living  had  not  seriously  affected  the  price  of  thought. 

In  these  bargain  counter  volumes  were  collections  of 
ideas  on  faith,  hope,  love,  prayer,  the  Bible,  the  church, 
— on  everything  in  fact  from  Adenoids  to  Zaccheus,  ar- 
ranged in  alphabetical  order.  We  may  well  shun  all  such 
collections  as  being  a  menace  to  any  wholesome  develop- 
ment of  one's  own  mental  powers.  You  do  not  want 
thoughts  which  can  be  sold  at  the  street  corners  thirty 


THE  CONTENT  OF  THE  SERMON     75 

of  them  for  a  cent.  They  are  altogether  too  cheap  to  be 
thrown  out  upon  a  congregation  of  thoughtful  people  who 
honor  you  by  their  presence  in  your  sanctuary.  You  want 
those  thoughts  which  come  forth  as  a  result  of  your  own 
intellectual  travail  and  labor. 

I  have  grave  doubts  also  as  to  the  value  of  those  elabo- 
rate scrap  cabinets  for  filing  newspaper  clippings.  If 
one  takes  a  goodly  number  of  religious  and  secular  papers 
and  makes  generous  use  of  his  scissors,  he  may  in  a  short 
time  have  a  very  considerable  accumulation  of  material. 
But  the  material  is  liable  to  become  stale  before  you  are 
ready  to  use  it.  It  is  something  like  putting  aside  a  few 
crackers  with  some  bits  of  cheese  and  bologna  sausage  in 
the  expectation  that  you  may  possibly  want  them  for  the 
picnic  sometime  next  summer.  If  your  eyes  are  open  and 
your  mind  is  alert,  you  will  gather  as  you  go  along  all 
the  fresh  material  of  that  sort  which  you  will  really  need 
in  the  work  of  preaching. 

You  can  see  at  once  the  advantage  of  doing  this  work 
in  the  assembling  of  your  material  for  the  body  of  your 
sermon  before  you  touch  a  book.  You  will  already  have 
gotten  many  of  the  very  things  which  you  will  find  in  the 
books.  You  will  not  feel  any  sense  of  intellectual  dis- 
honesty now  in  using  them.  On  the  contrary,  you  will 
have  a  free,  independent  joy  arising  legitimately  from 
your  own  discoveries.  You  will  not  smother  your  own 
intellectual  impulse,  your  own  creative  ability,  by  dump- 
ing in  a  lot  of  reading  matter  at  the  start  before  your 
mind  has  had  a  reasonable  opportunity  to  show  what  it 
can  do. 

You  will  also  learn  better  how  to  read  when  the  time 


76  THE  ART  OF  PREACHING 

comes  for  reading.  After  you  have  been  thinking  long 
and  seriously  upon  some  text  or  upon  some  more  extended 
passage  of  Scripture,  you  will  be  ready  to  use  your  com- 
mentaries with  more  intelligence  and  discrimination, 
o  You  will  know  where  to  pause  and  rest  the  whole  weight 
of  your  interest  and  where  you  may  pass  lightly  with  a 
kind  of  hop,  skip  and  jump.  The  work  you  have  already 
done  will  be  a  preparation  for  the  better  utilization  of 
other  men's  investigations.  And  you  will  constantly  in- 
crease your  own  power  of  productiveness,  whereas  the 
other  method  tends  always  to  stifle  it.  When  any  man  by 
his  attitudes  and  methods  indicates  to  his  own  mind  that 
he  is  relying  upon  it,  the  mind  has  a  way  of  reacting 
under  the  power  of  that  expectation  and  of  showing  itself 
surprisingly  competent. 

It  is  well  for  the  young  preacher  especially  to  avoid 
sameness  in  his  sermon  plans.  He  will  greatly  weaken 
his  power  if  he  undertakes  to  pour  all  the  refined  silver 
and  gold  of  the  Bible  into  one  or  two  narrow  sets  of  molds. 
He  had  better  vary  the  pattern  as  he  mints  the  unsearch- 
able riches  into  coins  which  will  serve  as  a  circulating 
medium  in  the  King's  business. 

We  had  a  man  in  the  Divinity  School  in  my  day  who 
came  in  one  Monday  morning  from  his  amateur  Sunday 
preaching  in  great  glee.  He  told  us  what  an  interesting 
and  moving  discourse  he  had  preached  the  day  before 
from  this  text,  "Thy  word  have  I  hid  in  my  heart  that 
I  might  not  sin  against  Thee."  He  made  three  bites  of 
it.  1.  The  thing  hidden — "the  word  of  God,"  which  gave 
him  opportunity  to  expatiate  at  length  upon  the  Bible. 
2.   The  place  hidden,   "the  heart" — this  hiding  of  the 


THE  CONTENT  OF  THE  SERMON     7V 

word  of  the  Lord  was  to  be  no  mere  intellectual  process 
but  a  genuine  heart  experience.  3.  The  purpose  for  which 
it  was  hidden  there — that  "I  might  not  sin  against  Thee." 
The  whole  process  was  to  result  in  renewed  character, 

N^ow  that  is  a  clear  and  useful  sort  of  outline.  He  had 
good  reason  for  the  joy  that  was  in  him.  But  the  follow- 
ing Monday  he  came  in  again  in  exultant  mood.  He 
blandly  announced  to  his  fellow  students  that  it  was  a 
rich  lead  he  had  struck  and  that  he  proposed  to  follow  it 
up.  He  had  preached  the  day  before  on  this  fine  text, — 
"I  have  graven  Thee  on  the  palms  of  my  hands."  1.  The 
thing  graven,  2.  The  place  graven,  3.  The  purpose  for 
which  it  was  graven.  And  he  may  be  going  on  yet  for 
all  I  know,  along  that  same  narrow  line,  singing  all  his 
tunes  in  the  same  key,  on  the  same  pitch,  with  no  varia- 
tion whatever  except  the  substitution  of  a  new  set  of 
words  from  time  to  time.  He  has  belonged  to  the 
"itinerancy"  I  know  and  has  enjoyed  to  the  full  the  privi- 
leges of  that  transient  relation.  And  it  may  be  that  the 
monotonous  use  of  a  particular  style  of  outline  has  had 
its  share  in  rendering  his  pastorates  many  and  brief. 

Let  your  plan  be  your  own — strictly,  exclusively,  pre- 
eminently, your  own.  The  sermon  plan  should  be  a  thing 
as  personal  as  a  toothbrush.  You  will  consult  your  own 
interest  if  you  shun,  as  you  would  shun  the  plague,  all 
those  books  of  "sermon  plans"  wherein  skeletons  long 
since  lifeless  are  steadily  grinning  at  the  foolish  men 
who  have  been  beguiled  into  walking  in  that  graveyard 
in  quest  of  outlines.  Those  books  are  known  among  the 
ungodly  as  "First  Aids  to  the  Lazy." 

Those  plans  are  not  yours  simply  because  you  have 


78  THE  ART  OF  PREACHING 

purchased  the  book  which  contains  them,  any  more  than 
the  plays  of  Shakespeare  are  yours  to  utter  as  your  own 
simply  because  you  have  possessed  yourself  of  a  copy  of 
Shakespeare.  "The  quality  of  mercy  is  not  strained,"  but 
it  is  by  no  means  elastic  enough  to  be  stretched  out  and 
made  to  cover  such  intellectual  theft  as  that. 
e>  You  may  gather  material  from  all  sorts  of  sources. 
You  will  openly  quote  in  some  cases.  You  will  digest 
and  assimilate  other  material  until  the  result  of  your 
reading  reappears  in  that  which  has  the  full  taste  and 
quality  of  your  own  intellectual  life  in  it.  But  your 
sermon  plan  should  be  every  time  the  fruit  of  your  own 
intellectual  loins.  We  cannot  afford  to  have  any  adopted 
children  wearing  our  names  at  this  point.  An  awkward 
outline  of  your  own  will  be  ten  times  more  effective  than 
some  splendid  one  which  you  have  cribbed  from  Fred- 
erick W.  Robertson  or  from  Alexander  Maclaren. 

It  is  wise  not  to  have  any  such  book  of  skeletons  in  your 
library.  In  some  moment  of  weakness  or  of  weariness, 
or  in  some  unusually  crowded  week  you  might  be  tempted 
to  use  it  as  a  makeshift.  The  wretched  thing  might  climb 
down  off  the  shelf  and  overthrow  your  integrity.  If  any 
student  here  now  owns  such  a  book,  I  will  gladly  excuse 
him  if  he  will  go  at  once  to  his  room  and  burn  it.  When 
the  flames  lick  up  the  pages  of  such  a  book  of  "Sermon 
Plans"  it  will  be  a  worthy  and  an  acceptable  burnt  offer- 
ing to  the  Lord. 

When  you  have  assembled  an  abundance  of  good  mate- 
rial in  this  way  and  have  put  it  into  effective  shape  by  a 
proper  arrangement  of  it,  you  can  learn,  if  you  will,  to 
preach  without  manuscript.    It  is  far  and  away  the  hap- 


THE  CONTENT  OP  THE  SERMON      79 

piest  and  the  most  effective  method  of  preaching.  It  is 
the  man  and  not  the  manuscript  which  makes  the  spiritual 
impression.  The  man  may  indeed  write  and  read,  but 
even  then  it  is  the  personality  of  the  man  who  did  the 
writing  and  does  the  reading,  rather  than  the  paper  thing 
lying  there  on  the  desk,  which  brings  results. 

The  method  of  preaching  without  manuscript  demands 
a  more  generous  stock  of  ideas.  The  somewhat  meager 
accumulation  of  thought  cannot  by  this  method  be  made 
to  go  as  far  as  would  be  possible  by  the  skillful  use  of 
literary  attenuation  in  a  carefully  prepared  manuscript. 
The  method  of  preaching  without  manuscript  also  takes 
it  out  of  a  man  by  its  more  exacting  demands  upon  one's 
nervous  force  as  the  other  method  does  not.  But  it  is 
worth  all  it  costs,  to  the  preacher  himself  and  to  the  people 
who  do  the  listening. 

-  In  my  judgment  it  is  the  ideal  way  to  preach  and  every 
young  man  may  well  strive  with  all  his  might  to  achieve 
success  in  it.  N^o  man  should  be  willing  to  give  it  up 
and  fall  back  upon  the  crutches  of  a  fully  written  manu- 
script which  has  to  be  read  leaf  by  leaf,  until  he  has 
fought  a  good  fight  to  attain  to  the  other  method  and  has 
been  driven  back  by  the  sense  of  his  own  failure  to  the 
very  last  ditch. 

In  saying  this  I  am  well  aware  that  the  written  sermon 
has  certain  advantages. 

1.  It  is  the  easier  way  to  preach — the  labor  of  writing 
a  sermon  in  full  to  be  read  from  manuscript  is  nothing 
when  compared  with  the  real  work  of  preparing  and  de- 
livering a  sermon  without  manuscript. 

2.  The  fully  written  sermon  requires  less  material,  for 


80  THE  ART  OF  PREACHING 

the  ideas  may  be  elaborated  and  worked  out  in  all  their 
implications  in  a  manner  that  is  practically  impossible 
for  a  man  speaking  without  manuscript. 

3.  The  written  sermon  takes  much  less  vitality  in 
actual  delivery,  for  the  manuscript  preacher  is  entirely 
freed  from  the  anxiety  which  the  other  preacher  must  of 
necessity  suffer  for  several  hours  before  entering  his 
pulpit  and  perhaps  during  the  entire  time  spent  in  de- 
livery. The  man  who  preaches  without  a  manuscript  will 
now  and  then  suffer  a  complete  breakdown  which  will 
keep  him  scared  and  anxious  for  the  next  two  or  three 
years.  The  manuscript  preacher  has  it  all  there  in  black 
and  white,  and  nothing  but  a  San  Francisco  earthquake 
or  some  other  untoward  calamity  can  interfere  with  the 
delivery  of  his  message  as  he  has  planned  it. 

4.  The  written  sermon  is  almost  sure  to  exhibit  a  more 
finished  literary  style  and  to  make  possible  those  niceties 
of  expression,  those  more  delicate  shades  of  meaning, 
which  the  speaker  without  manuscript  must  sacrifice. 
The  man  who  cuts  loose  from  a  manuscript  will  almost 
inevitably  paint  with  a  larger  brush  and  find  himself 
unable  to  put  into  his  pictures  some  of  the  more  delicate 
lines. 

5.  The  manuscript  preacher  is  in  a  better  position  to 
preserve  permanently  the  results  of  his  work  and  have  it 
as  a  basis  for  the  expenditure  of  further  effort.  He  can 
take  an  old  sermon  and  with  no  loss  in  its  former  value 
rewrite  it  in  such  a  way  as  to  add  fifty  per  cent  to  its 
interest  and  effectiveness. 

6.  The  manuscript  preacher  is  likely  also  to  be  more 
accurate  in  his  statements.    It  is  always  easier  to  tell  the 


THE  CONTENT  OF  THE  SERMON     81 

tnith  in  a  small  room  like  the  pastor's  study  where  the 
sermon  is  written  than  it  is  in  a  large  auditorium,  seating 
a  thousand  people  perhaps,  where  the  sermon  is  delivered. 
The  power  of  seeing  things  as  they  are  and  of  reporting 
upon  them  accurately  often  varies  inversely  as  the  num- 
ber of  square  yards  in  the  room  where  the  process  is  car- 
ried on. 

I  may  possibly  be  making  out  such  a  strong  case  in 
favor  of  manuscript  preaching  as  not  to  be  able  to  say 
anything  convincing  against  it.  But  being  myself  a 
preacher  without  manuscript  I  feel  that  it  would  be  un- 
just not  to  give  the  other  method  its  dues.  All  this  can 
be  said  and  said  heartily  in  favor  of  manuscript  preach- 
ing. But  there  are  great  disadvantages  to  be  charged  up 
against  it — more  than  enough  I  believe  to  leave  a  good 
sized  credit  on  the  other  side  of  the  column  when  the  trial 
balance  is  finally  struck.  These  four  counts  at  least  can 
be  made  against  it. 

1.  N^ine  people  out  of  every  ten,  outside  of  purely 
academic  circles,  are  strongly  prejudiced  against  it.  They 
may  possibly  be  trained  to  like  it  or  to  endure  it  just  as 
a  certain  percentage  of  the  population  can  be  taught  to 
like  tripe.  But  it  is  always  a  cultivated  taste.  The  great 
majority  of  the  people  never  come  to  think  of  the  manu- 
script sermon  as  one  of  the  staple  articles  of  diet  to  which 
their  appetites  instinctively  turn  with  relish. 

2.  There  is  no  other  calling  where  a  man  in  making 
a  popular  appeal  would  trust  for  his  results  to  a  carefully 
read  paper.  The  lawyer  does  not  stand  before  his  jury 
with  a  paper,  even  though  it  might  have  been  written  in 
a  style  which  combined  all  the  excellences  of  Blackstone 


82  THE  ART  OF  PREACHING 

and  of  Edmund  Burke.  He  speaks  to  them  directly, 
studying  all  the  while  their  attitudes,  their  faces,  their 
eyes.  If  he  had  some  kind  of  an  X-ray  which  would 
make  plain  to  him  the  operations  of  their  minds  and  the 
articulations  of  their  respective  wills,  he  would  want  that 
turned  on  so  that  he  might  watch  for  results,  as  they  that 
watch  for  the  morning. 

The  political  orator  campaigning  for  votes  would  not 
mount  the  hustings  with  a  paper  to  be  read,  even  though 
the  address  were  written  in  Addison's  best  English  and 
the  thought  as  profound  as  that  in  Plato's  Republic. 
Jfone  of  these  men  would  insulate  himself  by  a  thick  pile 
of  paper  from  those  with  whom  he  would  make  connec- 
tions and  to  whom  he  would  impart  himself  as  by  some 
mysterious  electric  current. 

The  actor  on  the  stage  does  not  appear  before  a  popular 
audience  reading  his  lines  from  a  well-thumbed  volume 
or  from  a  typewritten  manuscript.  Imagine  Edwin  Booth 
as  he  took  the  part  of  Brutus,  the  noblest  Roman  of  them 
all  in  the  play  of  Julius  Csesar,  or  Henry  Irving  as  he 
portrayed  before  our  eyes  the  devilishness  of  Mephisto- 
pheles  in  Goethe's  Faust  or  Forbes  Robertson  delineating 
in  his  own  delicate  exquisite  fashion,  the  strange  character 
of  Hamlet — imagine  any  one  of  those  men  reading  from 
paper  those  words  which  live  and  move  and  burn.  It  is 
unthinkable.  And  they  attempt  this  harder  task  of  utter- 
ing their  words  without  manuscript  merely  to  obtain  a 
corruptible  crown. 

3.  In  many  cases  also  the  use  of  a  manuscript  develops 
a  bad  style  of  elocution.  By  the  very  act  of  reading  the 
head  is  often  held  in  an  unnatural  position.     The  eyes 


THE  CONTENT  OF  THE  SERMON     83 

are  taken  away  from  those  to  whom  the  words  are  actually 
addressed  and  are  fixed  upon  paper.  The  mood  of  intel- 
lectual abstraction  is  frequently  induced  by  the  very  at- 
tention given  to  the  manuscript  itself.  All  this  tends  to 
rob  one^s  speech  of  that  sympathetic  quality  which  in- 
sures effective  delivery.  When  men  say  in  unstudied 
fashion  exactly  what  they  feel  at  the  moment,  they  are 
likely  to  get  their  inflections  right  and  to  have  their 
rhetorical  pauses  and  all  the  rest  of  it  straight. 

4.  The  use  of  the  manuscript  permits  and  even  en- 
courages an  ornate  and  somewhat  remote  literary  style 
which  no  one  would  use  were  he  looking  steadily  into  the 
faces  of  the  men  to  whom  his  message  is  to  be  delivered. 

You  may  feel  that  in  this  criticism  of  the  sermon  read 
from  a  manuscript  I  am  putting  it  strongly.  I  am 
indeed  laying  it  on  with  a  trowel,  but  I  feel  that  in  some 
measure  I  have  earned  the  right  to  speak  out  boldly  on 
this  point.  I  earned  that  right  by  the  sweat  of  my  brow 
and  of  my  brain.  I  have  learned  whatever  effectiveness 
I  may  possess  in  public  address  by  the  things  that  I  have 
suffered.  I  am  constitutionally  nervous.  In  early  life  I 
had  to  undergo  the  worst  sort  of  embarrassment  when  I 
had  to  do  anything  in  public.  The  delivery  of  a  five- 
minute  declamation  in  the  Academy  before  my  fellow 
students  put  me  into  a  cold  sweat.  And  I  often  find 
myself  now  all  in  a  tremble  when  I  am  about  to  face  an 
audience.  I  still  have  to  go  apart  at  times  and  put  myself 
through  a  set  of  deep  breathing  exercises  in  order  to  gain 
poise  and  self-control  before  speaking. 

In  addition  to  this  physical  disqualification  for  public 
speaking,  I  had  very  little  natural  facility  in  expression. 


84  THE  ART  OF  PREACHING 

When  I  was  on  my  feet,  the  right  words  would  not  come. 
I  knew  what  they  were — I  could  have  spelled  them  cor- 
rectly in  a  written  examination.  But  when  I  was  in  the 
act  of  speaking  I  could  not  drag  them  out  of  their  hiding 
places.  Whatever  command  of  language  I  have  attained 
has  come  through  a  long  period  of  hard,  serious  discipline? 
both  in  writing  and  in  speaking. 

I  began  as  a  manuscript  preacher.  For  several  years 
in  my  earlier  ministry  I  wrote  each  sermon  out  in  full 
on  a  Remington  typewriter  and  took  it  into  the  pulpit  to 
be  read  as  best  I  could.  And  when  I  broke  away  from 
that  method  and  undertook  to  learn  to  preach  without  a 
manuscript,  I  was  beaten  with  rods  of  mortification. 
Again  and  again  I  suffered  shipwreck.  By  day  and  by 
night  I  have  been  in  the  deep,  right  in  my  own  pulpit. 
I  floundered  around  for  many  a  bad  half  hour  where  I 
knew  the  water  was  over  my  head  and  was  painfully  aware; 
of  the  fact  that  I  had  not  learned  to  swim. 

In  weariness  and  in  painfulness,  with  backache  on 
Sunday  night  and  headache  on  Monday  morning,  in  cold 
chills  and  in  mental  nakedness,  I  have  labored  at  it  be- 
cause I  believed  that  the  spoken  word  could  be  made  more 
effective  than  the  word  read  from  manuscript.  And  be- 
cause of  my  own  struggles  and  because  of  the  greater  joy 
and  usefulness  which  I  have  found  in  the  other  mode  of 
preaching,  I  am  here  to  say  that  almost  any  man,  almost 
any  man,  can  learn  to  do  it,  if  he  is  willing  to  pay  the 
price. 

When  I  was  making  my  earliest  attempts  along  this 
line  I  used  to  take  long  texts  always,  so  that  somewhere 
within  the  confines  of  that  section  of  Scripture  I  might 


THE  CONTENT  OF  THE  SERMON     85 

find  ideas  enough  to  insure  my  not  running  out  of  mate- 
rial. I  was  preaching  one  Sunday  night  in  the  first 
church  I  served  in  the  city  of  Cincinnati,  Ohio,  from 
these  words — "Wherefore  seeing  we  also  are  encompassed 
about  with  so  great  a  cloud  of  witnesses,  let  us  lay  aside 
every  weight,  and  the  sin  which  doth  so  easily  beset  us, 
and  let  us  run  with  patience  the  race  that  is  set  before 
us,  looking  unto  Jesus  the  author  and  finisher  of  our 
faith."  I  took  the  whole  statement  for  my  text,  for  I 
felt  that  I  had  need  of  every  bit  of  suggestive  Scripture 
anywhere  in  sight.  After  preaching  that  night  for  exactly 
eleven  minutes,  I  ran  completely  out  of  ideas.  I  could 
not  think  of  anything  more  that  could  be  said  on  that 
particular  text  or  upon  the  general  subject  of  the  Chris- 
tian religion.  I  was  ashamed  to  stop  so  soon  but  I  was 
still  more  ashamed  to  keep  my  mouth  going  when  I  had 
nothing  to  put  into  it.  I  therefore  stopped,  announced 
the  last  hymn  and  pronounced  the  benediction  wishing 
that  there  was  a  back  door  in  the  church  or  some  stately 
formal  recessional  which  would  get  me  out  of  sight  by 
some  short  cut  without  having  to  see  anybody. 

The  officers  of  the  church  thought  that  I  must  have 
been  taken  suddenly  ill.  They  came  up  to  the  altar  to 
inquire  after  my  health  and  to  express  their  solicitude 
with  a  beautiful  sympathy  which  became  to  me  a  thing 
grievous  to  be  borne.  I  was  ashamed  to  tell  them  what 
had  actually  happened.  But  the  next  day  I  did  go  to  the 
principal  man  in  my  church  and  I  told  him  exactly  what 
had  occurred.  He  was  a  lawyer  and  he  leaned  back  in 
his  chair  and  laughed  until  he  almost  shook  the  huge 
desk  in  front  of  him.     I  can  still  feel  the  quiver  of  the 


86  THE  ART  OF  PREACHING 

unseemly  merriment  which  my  recital  produced  in  him. 
But  when  he  recovered  himself,  he  said,  "Keep  right  on ! 
Keep  right  on,  Parson — we  would  rather  have  eleven 
minutes  of  that  sort  of  preaching  than  half  an  hour  of 
the  other.  I  would  never  risk  one  of  my  cases  in  court 
by  taking  in  a  carefully  prepared  manuscript  to  be  read 
to  the  jury.  You  are  pleading  for  a  verdict  and  for  a 
much  more  important  verdict  than  it  is  ever  my  lot  to 
secure.  Keep  your  eyes  on  the  jury  and  talk  right  at 
them." 

This  was  comforting  and  encouraging.  And  with  the 
hearty  approval  and  the  sustaining  patience  of  the  officers 
of  my  church,  I  stuck  to  it  until  I  learned  to  do  it  after 
a  fashion.  And  such  as  it  is,  conscious  as  I  am  that 
every  such  preacher  must  sacrifice  a  great  deal  in  literary 
finish,  in  carefully  balanced  and  delicately  wrought  out 
sentences,  I  know  beyond  a  perad venture  that  it  has  made 
my  own  work  in  the  pulpit  more  acceptable  and  more 
useful  than  my  manuscript  preaching  could  ever  have 
been. 

The  people  are  patient  and  sympathetic  with  the  man 
who  is  striving  to  learn  to  speak  in  that  direct  way.  They 
like  the  courage  of  it — not  many  of  them  would  ever 
attempt  such  a  thing.  They  would  not  hazard  it  even  for 
a  single  address  of  half  an  hour  or  of  fifteen  minutes  to 
say  nothing  of  speaking  steadily  from  the  same  pulpit 
year  in  and  year  out  without  a  manuscript.  They  like 
to  see  a  man  standing  right  up  before  the  target,  able  to 
shoot  without  a  rest. 

I  do  not  use  the  term  "extemporaneous  preaching,"  you 
notice.    There  is  no  such  thing.    There  is  extemporaneous 


THE  CONTENT  OF  THE  SERMON     87 

twaddle  and  extemporaneous  prattle  and  gabble,  often- 
times loud  and  unctuous  and  greasy.  But  real  preaching 
is  never  extemporaneous.  The  man  who  rushes  into  the 
pulpit  with  no  preparation  beyond  the  possession  of  a 
few  scattering  ideas  (to  which  his  title  may  be  anything 
but  clear),  trusting  to  the  inspiration  of  the  occasion  and 
the  big  physical  "rousements"  he  intends  to  put  in,  to  do 
the  rest,  is  not  an  extemporaneous  preacher — he  is  an 
extemporaneous  rascal  and  an  unmitigated  nuisance.  He 
ought  to  be  put  down  with  a  strong  hand  and  an  out- 
stretched arm — and  I  should  like  to  be  the  Presiding 
Elder  called  upon  to  do  the  job. 

The  man  who  preaches  without  manuscript  reaches 
levels  of  joy  in  his  preaching  which  I  am  sure  the 
preacher  from  manuscript  knows  not  of.  He  has  more 
of  the  sense  of  high  privilege ;  he  gains  a  larger  measure 
of  that  sense  of  response  from  the  eyes  and  the  minds  and 
the  hearts  of  the  people  whom  he  is  steadily  watching: 
he  has  more  even  of  the  sense  of  openness  to  God  because 
of  his  more  daring  reliance  upon  the  aid  of  the  Spirit 
who  works  within  us  to  will  and  to  perform  his  good 
pleasure  in  those  moments  when  we  are  working  out  our 
own  salvation  as  efficient  preachers  of  his  Gospel. 

It  is  all  the  better  if  the  speaker  can  stand  out  free 
and  clear  before  his  congregation  with  no  wooden  breast- 
works acting  as  a  hindering  barrier.  He  will  more 
readily  swing  clear  as  he  feels  that  he  is  there  unimpeded, 
with  his  truth  and  with  the  Lord  of  truth,  to  minister  in 
direct  fashion  to  the  appealing  needs  which  are  spread 
out  before  him  in  those  eyes  which  are  looking  into  his 
own.    And  the  very  doing  of  it  with  any  measure  of  suc- 


O 


88  THE  ART  OF  PREACHING 

cess  will  put  a  look  of  radiant  joy  into  the  homeliest  face 
any  minister  ever  wore,  causing  it  to  shine. 

It  is  like  the  difference  between  swimming  with  a 
board  or  with  a  set  of  bladders  tied  under  one's  arms,  and 
real  swimming.  When  a  man  launches  out  into  the  deep, 
leaping  in  with  nothing  but  his  own  powers  to  rely  upon, 
trusting  to  the  water  to  take  care  of  his  venture,  he  finds, 
if  he  has  learned  to  swim,  that  the  buoyant  energy  of  the 
water  is  able  to  keep  and  to  float  that  which  is  committed 
unto  it.  Then  he  knows  the  joy  of  swimming.  And  the 
method  of  preaching  withovit  manuscript  is  like  unto  it. 

This  method  of  preaching  opens  the  door  for  those  fresh 
visions  of  truth  which  come  when  a  man  is  most  thor- 
oughly alive.  You  will  see  those  old  truths  in  new  rela- 
tions. You  will  see  farther  into  their  hidden  meanings, 
their  implications  and  their  applications.  And  under  the 
power  of  the  inspiration  which  comes  by  such  high  effort 
there  will  come  to  your  mind  ever  and  anon  some  great 
new  thought  so  precious  that  you  will  be  well  nigh  beside 
yourself  in  the  joy  of  possessing  it  in  your  own  right., 
There  are  beautiful  and  helpful  ideas  which  we  strike  out 
in  the  quiet  of  our  studies  and  there  are  also  ideas,  fairly 
dynamic  in  their  quality  of  spiritual  stimulus,  which  are 
struck  out  at  white  heat  when  the  man  stands  before  his 
people  possessed  from  head  to  foot  with  the  keen  joy  of 
self-impartation  in  things  spiritual. 

I  have  dwelt  on  this  method  of  preaching  because  I 
believe  that  by  the  use  of  it  you  can  steadily  add  to  the 
really  vital  elements  in  your  sermons.  It  enables  you  to 
use  your  congregations  and  compel  them  to  preach  with 
you  as  you  look  into  their  eyes  and  through  their  eyes 


THE  CONTENT  OF  THE  SERMON      89 

into  their  souls.  You  are  sharing  with  them  your  best, 
reaching  all  the  while  for  something  still  better  and  by 
the  reaction  which  comes  as  you  watch  them  and  work 
with  them,  they  aid  you  in  grasping  that  more  complete 
vision  of  the  truth. 

You  can  also  add  to  your  own  stock  of  deep  feeling  by 
feeling  what  they  feel  as  it  comes  back  to  you.  You  can 
draw  them  up  to  your  own  heart  reenforcing  your  stock 
of  spiritual  impulse  by  that  which  beats  and  throbs  in 
them.  You  can  use  your  own  sensibilities  and  theirs  in 
developing  that  full  measure  of  enthusiasm  and  devotion 
to  which  we  must  finally  look  for  the  abiding  results  of 
successful  preaching. 

In  order  to  do  this  most  effectively  you  will  need  to 
master  your  prepared  material  in  advance  and  to  master 
it  thoroughly.  In  the  preparation  of  an  outline  it  is  well 
for  each  man  to  prepare  only  as  much  as  he  can  really 
command  and  use,  without  too  much  reference  to  it  while 
he  is  in  the  act  of  speaking.  The  man  who  prepares  a 
very  elaborate  outline,  with  whole  paragraphs  of  excep- 
tional beauty  written  into  it,  with  illustrations  wrought 
out  in  exquisite  detail,  with  lovely  quotations  of  poetry 
which  he  must  turn  back  to  his  outline  to  read,  is  handi- 
capped from  the  start.  He  misses  the  real  points  of 
strength  in  both  styles  of  preaching.  He  is  forever  be- 
tween the  saddle  and  the  ground.  He  would  be  all  right 
if  he  were  either  walking  or  riding,  but  now  in  his  con- 
stant recurrence  to  that  elaborate  outline,  he  has  one  foot 
in  the  stirrup  with  the  other  hopping  along  on  the  ground 
or  waving  up  and  dowTi  along  the  flanks  of  the  horse. 
He  has  neither  the  security  of  a  firm  seat  in  the  saddle 


90  THE  ART  OF  PREACHING 

nor  the  humbler  satisfaction  of  standing  with  both  feet 
firmly  on  mother  earth. 

How  much  outline  any  man  can  use  to  advantage  de- 
pends upon  these  two  things:  (1)  Upon  the  retentive 
quality  of  his  mind  and  (2)  upon  how  well  the  outline 
is  built.  Have  only  so  much  outline  as  you  can  master 
and  use. 

If  your  elaborately  prepared  outline  with  its  load  of 
detail  causes  you  to  stumble  in  the  delivery  of  your  mes- 
sage, cut  it  off  and  cast  it  from  thee.  It  is  better  to  enter 
into  life  maimed,  than  having  two  hands  and  two  feet, 
four  heads  and  sixteen  subheads  to  stumble  along  in  in- 
effectiveness. There  are  sermons  which  would  add  sev- 
eral cubits  to  their  stature  by  having  a  capital  surgical 
operation  performed  upon  them  in  advance. 

When  you  assemble  the  material  of  your  sermon  largely 
out  of  your  own  interiors,  when  you  brood  over  it  lovingly 
and  meditatively  in  advance,  and  when  you  discover  new 
meanings  and  glories  in  it,  as  you  stand  up  to  deliver  it 
in  such  fashion  as  to  cause  men's  hearts  to  burn  within 
them,  you  will  inevitably  enter  into  the  mood  of  your 
theme.  This  is  absolutely  imperative.  You  have  heard 
sermons  where  the  content  of  the  sermon  was  in  one  key 
and  the  content  of  the  man  was  in  quite  another — and 
inevitably  the  spiritual  discord  was  something  horrible. 

If  a  man  is  to  preach  on  some  great  theme  he  must-  soak 
in  it  until  every  fiber  of  his  being  is  saturated  with  it. 
He  must  feel  it  himself,  if  he  is  to  make  other  men  feel 
it  to  the  point  of  acting  upon  it.  The  man  who  is  sour, 
or  harsh,  or  wooden,  cannot  in  the  very  nature  of  the  case 
preach  on  the  divine  compassion  for  men  or  upon  the  sac- 


THE  CONTENT  OF  THE  SERMON     91 

rifice  of  Christ  or  upon  the  high  office  of  human  sym- 
pathy. He  cannot  in  that  mood  touch  any  one  of  these 
themes  with  any  sense  of  reality.  He  does  not  speak  the 
language  in  which  they  were  born.  It  matters  not  what 
words  he  may  use,  the  life  of  the  theme  is  wanting  and 
the  whole  utterance  is  a  performance  as  dead  as  the  move- 
ments of  some  automaton  wound  up  to  do  its  stunt  of 
antics  on  the  stage.  You  could  never  say  of  that  man's 
words,  they  are  spirit  and  they  are  life.  His  preaching 
will  be  vain. 

If  the  minister  is  to  preach  on  some  difficult  theme  the 
need  for  this  preliminary  brooding  is  all  the  greater,  N^o 
man  is  competent  to  preach  on  future  punishment  until 
it  almost  breaks  his  heart  to  declare  what  he  solemnly 
believes  to  be  the  avrful  fate  of  continued  resistance  to 
the  divine  will.  If  a  man  is  accustomed  to  pray  for  half 
an  hour  over  his  sermon  when  he  preaches  on  the  love 
of  God,  he  had  better  pray  for  an  hour  and  a  half  when 
he  is  to  preach  on  the  fate  of  the  wicked. 

The  glib,  raw,  fierce  way  in  which  some  preachers  have 
preached  about  "hell"  has  been  like  the  unpardonable 
sin  against  the  Holy  Spirit.  There  is  a  certain  popular 
evangelist  to-day  of  much  renown  who  preaches  about  the 
doom  of  sinful  men  with  a  style  of  invective  and  a  tone 
of  voice  that  would  take  the  bark  off  the  trees  if  there 
were  any  trees  within  reach.  And  we  may  be  certain  that 
such  rough  work  does  scratch  and  wound  and  repel  the 
sensitive  souls  of  many  who  fall  under  the  dire  influence 
of  such  a  presentation. 

The  Master  arraigned  the  Pharisees  in  that  twenty- 
third  chapter  of  Matthew  in  words  so  piercing  that  it  is 


92  THE  ART  OF  PREACHING 

almost  impossible  for  us  to  read  them  aloud.  They  fairly 
scorch  our  lips,  they  are  so  terrible.  But  I  am  confident 
that  his  tone,  his  look  and  his  manner  were  not  in  any 
sense  harsh  or  fierce.  I  should  say  that  those  a\vful  words 
were  uttered  in  a  mood  of  solemn  tenderness.  His  mood 
was  one  of  infinite  disappointment  over  the  moral  tragedy 
wrought  out  under  the  false  leadership  of  those  Pharisees 
in  the  nation  which  he  loved  supremely  because  it  was 
his  own. 

I  am  strengthened  in  this  conviction  by  the  fact  that 
the  awful  arraignment  comes  to  its  climax  in  that  heart- 
break which  uttered  itself  in  those  words  of  tenderness. 
"O  Jerusalem,  Jerusalem!  How  often  would  I  have 
gathered  thy  children  together  as  a  hen  gathereth  her 
chickens  under  her  wings.  And  ye  would  not !"  How 
often  would  I — but  ye  would  not!  "Your  house  is  left 
unto  you  desolate!"  And  his  own  great  heart  in  that 
hour  when  he  mourned  over  them,  was  likewise  deso- 
late. 

This  brooding  over  your  material  until  you  are  fully 
in  the  mood  of  the  message  you  wish  to  convey  will  help 
you  to  create  the  atmosphere  demanded  for  effective 
preaching.  People  cannot  hear  anything  in  a  vacuum — 
there  is  no  sustaining  medium  on  which  the  sound  waves 
may  be  carried  to  the  listening  ear.  And  the  people  can- 
not hear  very  much  of  a  church  service  in  an  atmosphere 
where  there  is  nothing  but  oxygen  and  nitrogen.  They 
might  hear  a  brass  band  playing.  They  might  hear  the 
vigorous  yelling  of  a  set  of  college  boys  at  a  football  game 
or  the  roar  of  a  stamp  mill  grinding  out  the  gold  from 
the  quartz.     But  in  an  atmosphere  where  there  is  only 


THE  CONTENT  OF  THE  SERMON     93 

oxygen  and  nitrogen  they  will  not  hear  very  much  of  a 
church  service. 

If  they  are  to  hear  the  softer  and  more  intensive  notes 
in  the  message  you  hring,  there  must  be  that  atmosphere 
where  spiritual  sound  waves  will  carry.  There  must  be 
a  suitable  sustaining  medium  so  that  your  words  and  your 
purpose  and  your  feeling  may  indeed  reach  the  hearts  of 
those  for  whom  the  message  is  intended.  Your  own  high 
mood  of  devotion  as  people  see  it  in  your  face,  as  they 
hear  it  in  the  deeper  undertones  of  your  voice,  as  it  finds 
expression  in  your  reading  of  the  Scripture  lesson  and 
in  your  prayer,  that  mood  of  devotion  will,  if  it  be  full 
and  strong,  create  and  maintain  that  atmosphere  where 
the  voice  of  the  Spirit  as  He  speaks  through  you  will 
reach  and  find  the  attentive  souls  of  those  who  hear. 

In  these  days  of  wireless,  the  ships  whisper  to  each 
other  across  the  wide  stretches  of  open  sea.  Any  one 
watching  the  process  from  the  outside  would  see  nothing, 
hear  nothing,  feel  nothing  of  what  was  taking  place.  The 
receiver  has  to  be  adjusted  and  attuned  to  the  precise 
wave  lengths  created  by  the  transmitter  where  the  mes- 
sage is  being  sent  forth. 

Hear  then  the  parable  of  the  wireless!  By  your  own 
worshipful  mood  and  by  your  ability  to  lead  the  thoughts 
of  your  people  heavenward,  it  is  your  high  office  to  adjust 
the  receiving  capacity  of  all  those  waiting  hearts  until 
every  one  of  them  will  hear  and  heed  the  whispers  of  the 
Divine  Spirit. 


IV 

THE    MEASURE    OF    THE    SEEMON 

YOU  will  all  agree  with  me  that  the  sermon  has 
dimensions.  It  has  length,  we  all  know.  The 
people  who  do  the  listening  are  sometimes  pain- 
fully aware  that  it  has  length.  And  there  are  unhappily 
some  sermons  which  seem  to  have  little  else — they  are 
sermons  mainly  of  one  dimension. 

These  sermons  have  length  and  they  have  it  more  abun- 
dantly than  the  hearers  would  desire.  But  they  are  lack- 
ing in  breadth,  in  any  wide  range  of  sympathy,  in  any 
broad  vision  of  the  Kingdom,  in  points  of  contact  with  the 
everyday  lives  of  those  to  whom  they  are  addressed. 
They  are  lacking  in  depth,  in  depth  of  conviction,  in  any 
firm  grasp  of  the  fundamental  principles  which  underlie 
all  personal  well-being  and  all  social  advance.  They  are 
lacking  in  height,  in  height  of  aspiration,  in  that  outward, 
upward,  Godward  reach  of  faith  which  carries  the  real 
sermon  above  the  dead  level  of  the  commonplace  mo- 
ralities. 

However  it  may  be  in  mathematics  there  is  always  a 
fourth  dimension  in  sermons.  If  the  sermon  is  broad  in 
its  sympathies,  in  the  range  of  its  interest,  and  in  the 
scope  of  its  outlook  upon  the  needs  of  the  world;  if  it  is 
deep  in  its  grasp  of  those  fundamental,  underlying  prin- 
ciples and  verities  which  worthily  sustain  it;  and  if  it  is 

94 


THE  MEASURE  OF  THE  SERMON  95 

high,  not  merely  in  the  level  of  its  actual  achievement 
hut  in  the  upward  reach  of  its  aspiration,  then  it  adds  to 
its  appropriate  length  the  necessary  qualities  of  breadth 
and  height  and  depth.  And  by  this  needed  extension  it 
comes  to  be  a  well  built,  symmetrical  sermon.  The  length 
and  the  breadth  and  the  height  of  every  sermonic  struc- 
ture should  be  approximately  equal. 

But  here  in  this  lecture  I  desire  to  give  more  particular 
attention  to  one  special  dimension — let  me  speak  as 
strongly  as  I  can  about  the  length  of  the  sermon.  If  any 
man  in  the  uninstructed  goodness  of  his  heart  is  inclined 
to  look  upon  this  as  an  unimportant  matter,  let  him  ask 
his  laymen.  They  will  give  him  wisdom  liberally  and 
upbraid  him  besides  if  he  fails  to  give  heed  to  their  well 
matured  judgment.  Their  minds  are  all  made  up  on  this 
point.  They  have  convictions  as  robust  as  the  opinions 
of  John  Calvin.  And  these  resolute  laymen  are  all  of 
them  opposed,  firstly,  secondly,  thirdly,  lastly  and  all  the 
time  to  long  sermons.  And  I  may  say,  just  in  passing, 
that  my  own  personal  sympathies  are  entirely  with  the 
laymen  in  their  fundamental  contention. 

There  is  no  reason  in  the  nature  of  the  case  why  a  ser- 
mon should  be  just  so  long.  Why  should  a  sermon  be  just 
thirty  minutes,  or  forty  minutes,  or  if  by  reason  of  un- 
usual powers  of  endurance  and  of  attenuation,  sixty  min- 
utes in  length?  There  is  no  more  reason  that  a  man's 
sermon  should  be  just  so  long,  than  there  is  that  a  man's 
trousers  should  be  just  so  long.  It  all  depends  on  the 
length  of  the  man.  In  one  case  it  depends  upon  the  length 
of  the  man's  legs,  and  in  the  other  case  it  depends  on  the 
length  of  the  man's  mind. 


96  THE  ART  OF  PREACHING 

The  proper  length  of  any  sermon  must  be  determined 
in  the  light  of  the  reach  and  power  of  the  man's  mental 
grasp,  in  the  light  of  his  capacity  to  hold,  to  interest  and 
to  profit  a  body  of  hearers  by  his  presentation  of  the  truth. 
And  you  will  all  agree  with  me,  I  am  sure,  that  there  are 
men  abroad  in  the  land,  who  would  make  a  much  better 
appearance  and  would  accomplish  more  good  by  their 
preaching,  if  they  selected  their  trousers  and  determined 
the  length  of  their  sermons  with  a  more  accurate  reference 
to  their  own  particular  sizes. 

The  sermon  always  is  nothing  more  nor  less  than  a  tool ! 
What  size  should  a  tool  be  ?  How  long  should  a  scythe  be  ? 
How  heavy  should  an  axe  be  ?  This  cannot  be  determined 
by  certain  fixed  presuppositions  or  by  any  a  priori  prin- 
ciples about  the  formation  of  tools.  It  is  to  be  determined 
altogether  by  the  demands  of  the  task  to  which  this  par- 
ticular tool  is  to  be  applied.  A  man  will  mow  more  grass 
with  a  scythe  of  reasonable  length  than  he  would  with  a 
scythe  twenty  feet  long.  He  will  cut  more  wood  with  a 
five  pound  axe  than  he  could  with  one  weighing  twenty 
pounds.  The  sermon  also  is  a  tool  and  its  length  is  to  be 
determined  entirely  by  those  considerations  which  indicate 
its  fitness  or  its  unfitness  to  accomplish  a  desired  spiritual 
result. 

We  may  therefore  lay  aside  at  the  very  start  all  our 
predilections  in  favor  of  a  thirty  or  a  forty  minute  sermon 
as  having  some  divinely  imposed  sanction.  There  are  no 
promises  made  in  the  Bible  to  the  effect  that  people  will 
be  richly  blessed  and  finally  rewarded  by  being  taken  to 
heaven  when  they  die,  for  having  listened  patiently  to 
fifty-two  unduly  prolonged  sermons  in  each  of  the  years 


THE  MEASURE  OF  THE  SERMON  97 

of  their  earthly  pilgrimage.  The  question  of  length  is  a 
practical  question  altogether  and  it  is  to  be  answered  by 
the  application  of  the  pragmatic  test.  What  length  of 
sermon  works  best  ?  What  length  of  sermon  accomplishes 
most  in  creating,  nurturing  and  directing  Christian  im- 
pulse ?  If  that  can  be  determined,  we  shall  have  the 
proper  length  of  discourse  indicated.  Whatever  brand  of 
philosophy  you  may  prefer  touching  other  vital  interests, 
in  determining  the  length  of  your  sermon,  you  would  better 
all  be  pragmatists.  The  length  of  sermon  that  works  best 
in  producing  spiritual  results  is  the  right  length. 

With  that  general  principle  firmly  in  mind  let  me  hasten 
to  say  that  the  clock  has  nothing  to  do  with  the  length  of 
a  sermon.  ^Nothing  whatever !  Clocks  know  nothing  about 
the  matter:  clocks  are  in  no  wise  competent  to  pass  upon 
the  proportions  of  a  sermon.  A  long  sermon  is  a  sermon 
that  seems  long.  It  may  have  lasted  an  hour  or  it  may 
have  lasted  but  fifteen  minutes.  If  it  seems  long,  it  is 
long — it  is  too  long.  And  the  short  sermon  is  one  that 
ends  while  people  are  still  wishing  for  more.  It  may 
have  lasted  only  twenty  minutes  or  it  may  have  lasted  for 
an  hour  and  a  half.  If  it  leaves  the  people  wishing  for 
more,  they  do  not  know  nor  care  what  the  clock  said  about 
the  length  of  it. 

You  cannot  tell,  therefore,  how  long  a  sermon  is  by 
watching  the  hands  of  a  clock — watch  the  people.  See 
where  their  hands  are.  If  the  hands  of  the  men  are  for 
the  most  part  in  their  vest  pockets  pulling  out  their 
watches  to  note  again  how  long  you  have  been  at  it,  this 
is  ominous.  See  where  their  ejes  are !  See  where  their 
minds  are,  then  you  will  know  exactly  what  time  of  day 


98  THE  ART  OF  PREACHING 

it  is  for  that  particular  sermon.  It  may  be  high  time  for 
it  to  come  to  an  end. 

If  a  man  is  unconscious,  either  because  he  is  asleep  or 
because  he  is  already  numb  through  the  painful  effort  of 
listening:  or  if  a  man  is  unconscious  because  he  is  inter- 
ested beyond  measure,  and  lifted  into  such  a  sense  of  the 
immensities  and  the  eternities  of  a  higher  experience  as 
not  to  know  whether  he  is  in  the  body  or  out,  he  is  entirely 
oblivious  of  clocks.  A  thousand  minutes  are  to  him  as  one, 
and  one  minute  as  a  thousand.  Time  is  no  more.  He 
has  already  entered  into  life  eternal.  He  is  actually  living 
in  a  world  unseen  with  no  sense  whatever  of  the  lapse  of 
what  we  call  time.  He  may  never  have  heard  of  the  man 
named  Einstein  but  he  will  have  experienced  to  the  full 
the  truth  contained  in  the  doctrine  of  relativity. 

There  was  that  woman  of  Samaria !  The  day  was  hot 
and  she  was  thirsty.  She  came  forth  to  Jacob's  well  to 
get  a  pitcher  of  water.  She  found  sitting  by  the  well  a 
mysterious  stranger.  The  possibility  of  any  sympathetic 
contact  of  his  interests  with  hers  seemed  remote.  He  was 
a  man,  she  was  a  woman — and  in  the  Orient  that  means 
a  gulf  fixed.  He  was  a  Jew,  she  was  a  Samaritan — and 
the  Jews  had  no  dealings  with  the  Samaritans.  Race 
prejudice  and  religious  bigotry  had  dug  that  giilf  still 
deeper.  He  was  the  sinless  Son  of  God  and  she  was  a 
woman  morally  bankrupt,  living  at  that  hour  with  a  man 
who  was  not  her  husband.  Her  own  wrong  doing  had 
widened  that  gulf  into  a  chasm  of  separation. 

The  only  thing  they  seemed  to  have  in  common  was  the 
fact  that  they  were  both  thirsty.  The  Master  began  on 
that  narrow  bit  of  common  ground.     Wlien  he  saw  the 


THE  MEASURE  OF  THE  SERMON  99 

woman  filling  her  water  pot  he  said  to  her,  "Give  me  a 
drink."  And  presently  growing  directly  out  of  their  con- 
versation touching  that  simple  interest  of  thirst,  he  was 
speaking  to  her  of  "living  water"  which  would  not  leave 
whole  sections  of  her  nature  still  athirst.  He  was  speaking 
of  a  worship  which  was  not  limited  to  "this  mountain" 
nor  to  "Jerusalem,"  a  worship  universal  in  its  scope  he- 
cause  it  was  offered  "in  spirit  and  in  truth."  He  was 
fixing  her  eyes  not  upon  her  sin,  nor  upon  her  sect,  but 
upon  her  God.  He  was  revealing  to  her  One  who  could 
lift  her  out  of  her  sins. 

In  this  high  exercise  of  faculty  the  woman  forgot  all 
about  her  thirst.  She  forgot  the  errand  which  had  brought 
her  out  to  Jacob's  well.  "She  left  her  water  pot,"  the 
record  says,  and  went  to  the  city  entreating  all  she  met  to 
come  and  see  One  who  had  revealed  her  to  herself.  He 
had  spoken  to  her  as  if  he  might  have  known  all  the  things 
that  ever  she  had  done.  And  Jesus  also  forgot  his  hunger. 
When  his  disciples  who  had  gone  to  the  village  to  buy 
food  returned  and  prayed  him  to  eat,  he  said  to  them,  "I 
am  not  hungry."  And  when  they  whispered  among  them- 
selves, "Hath  any  man  brought  him  aught  to  eat,"  He  said 
to  them,  with  a  smile,  "I  have  meat  to  eat,  that  ye  know 
not  of." 

Here  was  that  utter  absorption  in  higher  interests  which 
causes  men  and  women  alike  to  forget  the  claims  of  the 
body  as  expressed  in  hunger  and  thirst !  Here  was  an 
effective  tribute  to  the  power  of  great  ideas !  And  when 
congregations  are  eating  that  meat  which  the  thoughtless 
know  not  of,  and  drinking  that  "living  water"  which  be- 
comes a  veritable  well  of  satisfaction  in  each  heart  spring- 


100  THE  ART  OF  PREACHING 

ing  up  with  an  everlasting  life,  all  sense  of  time  relations 
vanishes.  The  duration  of  any  sermon  is  therefore  to  be 
indicated  in  terms  of  consciousness  or  of  unconsciousness 
rather  than  by  those  figures  which  have  to  do  with  hours, 
and  minutes,  and  seconds. 

There  are  some  things,  however,  which  tend  to  make  any 
sermon  seem  long.  The  long  text  may  do  it  even  before 
you  have  really  begun.  If  the  minister  reads  for  his  text 
three  or  four  difficult,  intricate  verses  from  one  of  the 
minor  prophets  or  even  from  the  close  knit  letters  of  Paul, 
the  people  are  apt  to  feel  that  they  are  in  for  a  good  deal 
even  though  the  sermon  in  store  for  them  may  last  only 
twenty  minutes.  The  text  should  never  be  too  long  to  be 
uttered  easily  in  a  single  breath.  We  get  better  results 
always  when  we  cut  up  the  children's  meat  into  conven- 
iently sized  mouthfuls. 

One  entire  sentence  of  Scripture  may  be  entirely  too 
long  for  a  useful  text.  The  sentence  which  is  really  suit' 
able  for  a  text  allows  the  voice  to  fall  some  time  before  it 
is  ready  to  drop  from  sheer  exhaustion.  The  second  sen- 
tence in  Paul's  letter  to  the  Ephesians,  for  example,  con- 
tains by  actual  count  two  hundred  and  sixty-seven  words. 
It  is  like  one  of  those  involved  German  sentences  in  which 
Mark  Twain  said  a  man  could  travel  all  day  without 
changing  cars.  This  one  sentence  from  Ephesians  with 
its  two  hundred  and  sixty-seven  words  has  in  it  entirely 
too  many  words  for  a  suitable  text — about  two  hundred 
and  fifty  too  many. 

The  length  of  many  of  the  apostle's  sentences  indeed, 
as  well  as  the  intricacy  of  their  construction,  was  one 
reason  perhaps  why  Peter  felt  moved  to  say  on  one  occa- 


THE  MEASURE  OF  THE  SERMON  101 

sion  that  "in  the  epistles  of  our  beloved  brother  Paul  there 
are  some  things  hard  to  be  understood."  In  our  critical 
study  of  the  Pauline  epistles  we  have  all  had  a  fellow  feel- 
ing with  the  frank  outspoken  Peter.  If  the  apostle  to 
the  Gentiles  had  cultivated  the  habit  of  coming  more  read- 
ily to  a  full  stop,  allowing  his  voice  to  fall  a  bit  sooner, 
he  might  not  have  suffered  this  adverse  comment  from  the 
apostle  to  the  circumcision.  One  clear,  definite  statement 
from  Scripture,  brief  enough  to  be  uttered  readily  and 
easy  to  remember  when  used  as  a  text,  gives  the  sermon  a 
much  more  promising  start. 

It  may  be  that  less  than  an  entire  sentence,  where  the 
sense  is  not  destroyed  nor  distorted,  will  furnish  a  most 
suggestive  and  helpful  text  for  a  sermon.  Here  are  some 
good  examples!  "There  is  a  lad  here."  "I  was  afraid 
and  I  went  and  hid."  "In  the  year  that  King  Uzziah 
died,  I  saw  the  Lord."  "As  much  as  in  me  is,  I  am 
ready."     "Sell  and  give." 

When  you  begin  to  read  the  verse  the  people  will  ex- 
pect to  hear  the  whole  of  it.  Your  action  in  taking  but 
that  part  of  it  which  suggests  in  vivid  fashion  some  vital 
truth  will  at  once  arrest  attention.  Doctor  John  Henry 
Jowett  has  a  most  effective  sermon  on  prayer  from  this 
text,  "When  ye  pray,  say,  Our."  The  unwonted  use  of  a 
portion  of  a  most  familiar  verse  of  Scripture  will  aid  you 
in  promptly  enlisting  the  interest  of  a  congregation. 

The  same  criticism  holds  against  the  long,  intricate  sen- 
tences sometimes  perpetrated  by  the  preachers  themselves 
upon  their  people.  If  it  is  a  full  Sabbath  day's  journey 
from  a  man's  nominative  case  to  his  leading  verb,  there 
are  a  great  many  tired,  reluctant  minds  in  any  congrega- 


102  THE  ART  OF  PREACHING 

tiou  which  will  decline  to  make  the  trip.  The  sentence 
which  moves  straight  from  start  to  finish  like  an  arrow 
shot  from  the  bowstring  to  the  target,  without  being  too 
long  about  it,  is  always  the  more  effective. 

The  literary  style  of  the  Sermon  on  the  Mount  is  limpid 
as  a  pool.  "Where  your  treasure  is,  there  will  your  heart 
be.  JSTo  man  can  serve  two  masters.  Seek  first  the  king- 
dom of  God.  Ask,  and  it  shall  be  given  you.  Whatsoever 
ye  would  that  men  should  do  to  you,  do  ye  even  so  to  them. 
By  their  fruits  ye  shall  know  them.  Blessed  are  the  pure 
in  heart,  for  they  shall  see  God."  Monosyllables  for  the 
most  part — in  the  sentences  I  have  just  quoted  there  are 
sixty-one  words  and  all  but  six  of  them  words  of  one  syl- 
lable. Sentences  brief  and  straight!  The  style  as  clear 
as  the  water  of  a  running  brook !  The  depth  of  those  state- 
ments is  fathomless  but  in  their  literary  form  they  are 
clear  as  crystal.  It  was  of  the  manner  and  the  style  of 
Christ's  speech  as  well  as  of  the  substance,  that  m.en  said 
and  have  been  saying  for  two  thousand  years  and  will 
continue  to  say  forever  more,  "He  spake  as  never  man 
spake."  The  long  involved  sentences  will  cause  any  man 
to  stumble  in  his  delivery  thereby  making  his  sermon  less 
effective — cut  them  off  and  cast  them  from  thee.  It  is 
better  to  enter  into  life  maimed  than  having  pious  sen- 
tences as  long  as  from  Dan  to  Beersheba  to  fall  into  the  pit 
of  dullness. 

A  long  introduction  will  make  a  sermon  seem  long. 
When  one  man  is  introduced  to  another,  the  two  parties 
to  the  transaction  desire  to  be  made  acquainted  with  their 
respective  names.  It  may  also  be  well  for  them  to  have 
some   interesting  fact   regarding  each  man  briefly  sug- 


THE  MEASURE  OF  THE  SERMON  103 

gested.  It  helps  tlieni  in  starting'  their  conversation 
to  know  something  about  each  other.  But  they  do  not 
care  to  know  all  the  past  history  in  each  case,  or  even 
so  much  of  it  as  might  be  found  in  "Who's  Who."  When 
the  brief  necessary  words  of  introduction  have  been  ut- 
tered, then  the  two  men  can  best  shift  for  themselves. 

It  is  so  with  all  introductions — particularly  with  those 
which  undertake  to  put  a  theme  and  a  congregation  on 
such  pleasant  and  intimate  terms  with  each  other  as  to 
enable  them  at  once  to  spend  a  profitable  half  hour  to- 
gether. Not  in  these  words  naturally,  but  after  this  man- 
ner introduce  ye :  Ladies  and  gentlemen,  my  theme !  My 
theme,  this  is  my  congregation !  Then  allow  them  to  enter 
at  once  upon  that  intimate  and  profitable  contact  for  which 
the  half  hour  is  set  apart.  There  is  no  better  way  of  get- 
ting the  attention  of  a  congregation  than  by  giving  them 
as  promptly  as  possible  something  worth  attending  to. 

The  man  who  cannot  preach  from  the  E^ew  Testament 
without  beginning  at  the  Babylonian  Captivity  in  order 
to  get  a  good  running  start,  or  from  the  Old  Testament 
without  giving  a  complete  sketch  of  the  history  of  the  Jews 
from  the  days  when  the  morning  stars  sang  together  and 
all  the  sons  of  God  shouted  for  joy,  needs  to  study  more 
fully  the  nature  of  an  introduction. 

There  are  men  who  consume  such  an  amount  of  time 
in  putting  on  the  tablecloth  and  distributing  the  knives 
and  forks,  that  the  people  begin  to  wonder  whether  or  not 
they  are  to  have  anything  to  eat.  If  the  poor  man  only 
knew  it,  his  hearers  are  all  impatiently  saying  to  him, 
"Get  on,  man,  get  on,  and  give  us  a  chance  at  your  sub- 
ject !" 


104  THE  ART  OF  PREACHING 

The  lack  of  arrangement  also  tends  to  make  any  sermon 
seem  long.  There  was  once  an  uneducated  Irishman  who 
picked  up  a  pocket  dictionary  and  started  in  to  read  it 
through.  He  said  afterward  that  the  book  seemed  to  be 
full  of  valuable  information,  but  for  the  life  of  him,  he 
could  not  get  "the  thread  of  the  discourse."  There  are 
sermons  which  have  a  lot  of  good  stuff  in  them,  but  the 
material  is  not  arranged  in  any  sort  of  order.  The  points 
do  not  come  in  logical  fashion,  1,  2,  3,  4, — they  come  like 
the  signals  at  a  football  game,  7,  2,  19,  23,  45,  11.  The 
signals  in  the  football  game  are  purposely  introduced  in 
that  confusing  fashion  so  that  they  may  not  be  understood 
by  the  players  on  the  opposite  side.  The  lack  of  order  in 
the  arrangement  of  sermon  material  works  out  a  similar 
uncertainty  and  confusion  in  the  minds  of  the  people  in 
the  pews  and  to  that  extent  it  makes  directly  against  the 
winning  of  the  game  by  the  minister  who  has  not  learned 
to  count. 

The  dinner  is  always  enjoyed  the  more,  and,  according 
to  the  best  physiologists,  it  contributes  more  directly  to- 
ward physical  well-being,  where  the  courses  are  arranged 
in  some  rational  order.  If  we  had  the  ice-cream  served 
first,  with  the  soup,  the  fish,  the  roast  and  the  salad  scat- 
tered about  in  any  sort  of  hit-or-miss  fashion  as  might 
happen,  the  dinner  would  be  much  less  enjoyable  and 
much  less  nourishing. 

There  is  a  strong  prejudice  in  the  minds  of  many  peo- 
ple, and  in  the  minds  of  some  ill-advised  ministers,  against 
the  use  of  a  skeleton  in  the  sermon.  It  is  unfortunate  if 
the  appearance  of  the  sermon  is  bony.  And  there  are  a 
great  many  sermons  which  would  make  a  much  better 


TPIE  MEASURE  OF  THE  SERMON  105 

appearance  if  they  had  eaten  more  meat  before  they  en- 
tered the  pulpit.  But  it  ought  to  be  remembered  that 
while  pink  and  white  flesh  is  ever  so  much  more  beautiful 
to  look  at  than  the  skeleton  in  the  surgeon's  closet,  the 
pink  and  white  flesh  would  be  without  either  grace  or 
utility  if  there  were  no  bones  hidden  away  somewhere 
within  that  graceful  contour.  And  there  are  just  as  many 
bones  in  the  lovely  young  woman,  whose  appearance  is  so 
entirely  satisfactory,  as  there  are  in  the  skeleton  hanging 
in  the  closet. 

The  bony  appearance  of  the  sermon  is  to  be  avoided, 
not  by  building  it  without  any  particular  plan,  but  by 
clothing  the  outline  with  living  tissue.  It  is  written  in 
the  book  of  life  that  the  mollusk  can  never  do  the  work 
of  the  vertebrate.  The  mollusk  sermon  may  have  plenty 
of  good  soft  thought  in  it,  furnishing  in  abundance  edible 
material  which  could  be  used  in  making  a  homiletic  chow- 
der. But  if  the  sermon  can  neither  "sit  nor  stand,"  to 
say  nothing  of  being  able  to  "rise  and  go,"  it  will  fail  in 
its  effectiveness. 

The  skeleton  of  the  sermon  need  not  be  exposed  over- 
much. A  house  with  the  studding  and  the  rafters  and  all 
the  necessary  framework  on  the  outside  would  present  a 
singular  and  an  unfortunate  appearance.  That  comely 
young  woman  with  her  full  quota  of  two  hundred  and  eight 
bones  hidden  away  somewhere  within  her  loveliness,  would 
sacrifice  a  great  deal  if  she  undertook  to  wear  her  ribs 
on  the  outside  of  her  clothing.  The  present  styles  of  dress 
have  done  a  good  deal  in  that  direction — they  certainly 
leave  much  less  to  the  unaided  imagination  than  did  the 
styles  in  vogue  when  I  was  a  young  man.     And  in  that 


106  THE  ART  OF  PREACHING 

measure  tliej  seem  to  some  of  us  to  have  rendered  much 
less  attractive  the  more  beautiful  half  of  the  human  fam- 
ily. But,  as  Kipling  would  say,  "that  is  another  story." 
Keturning  to  my  less  distracting  and  less  perilous  theme, 
the  sermon  which  obtrudes  its  bones  upon  the  public  like 
some  poor  famine-stricken  sufferer  from  India  is  likely 
to  suggest  to  the  congregation  that  it  also  has  not  had 
enough  to  eat  before  it  was  brought  out  for  exhibition. 

In  the  earlier  days  at  Yale  University  there  was  a  cer- 
tain preacher  who  was  strong  on  heads  and  subheads.  He 
would  have  been  a  joy  to  Elspeth  McFadyen,  the  famous 
sermon  taster  of  Drumtochty.  She  could  have  followed 
him  and  have  memorized  his  divisions  without  ever  turn- 
ing a  hair.  He  would  introduce  Roman  I,  Roman  II, 
Arabic  1,  Arabic  2,  One  in  brackets,  two  in  brackets, 
and  sometimes  drawing  it  still  finer,  would  bring  in  his 
A's  and  B's  and  C's.  He  would  announce  these  minute 
subdivisions  as  definitely  as  if  he  had  been  giving  a  lesson 
in  trigonometry. 

There  was  also  at  that  time  a  student  in  the  Junior 
Class  at  Yale  with  a  keen  sense  of  humor  who  felt  that 
the  Lord  had  delivered  this  tiresome  preacher  into  his 
hands.  This  Junior  organized  his  class  for  a  concerted 
movement.  The  next  time  this  preacher  appeared  in  Bat- 
tell  Chapel,  the  whole  Junior  Class  was  ready.  And 
when  he  passed  from  Roman  I  to  Arabic  one,  or  from  one 
in  brackets  to  two  in  brackets,  they  all  crossed  their  legs 
simultaneously  in  one  direction;  and  when  he  passed  an- 
other bony  headline  on  the  coast  of  his  discourse,  they  un- 
crossed their  legs  and  crossed  them  over  the  other  way. 
^'his  bit  of  exercise  was  very  refreshing  to  their  weary 


THE  MEASURE  OF  THE  SERMON  107 

spirits.  And  it  soon  became  immensely  diverting  to  the 
rest  of  the  congregation.  The  Seniors  across  the  aisle  and 
the  Freshmen  and  the  visitors  in  the  galleries  withdrew 
their  attention  entirely  from  the  unfortunate  preacher  to 
watch  this  mighty  movement  of  three  hundred  pairs  of 
legs  as  the  preacher  passed  from  point  to  point.  He  too 
presently  became  aware  of  what  was  taking  place  and  the 
sight  of  so  much  flesh  and  blood  in  action  was  too  much 
for  even  his  dull  spirit.  He  hastily  closed  his  sermon  and 
gave  out  the  last  hymn.  It  is  not  recorded  what  that  hymn 
was — it  might  well  have  been, 

"Look  how  we  grovel  here  below, 
Fond  of  these  trifling  toys, 
Our  souls  can  neither  fly  nor  go. 
To  reach  eternal  joys." 

The  Junior  was  suspended  for  taking  the  leading  part 
in  that  demonstration  but  I  hope  for  the  credit  of  Yale 
and  for  the  credit  of  our  own  preaching  profession  that  his 
punishment  was  not  of  long  duration.  If  I  had  been  Dean 
of  the  Divinity  School  at  that  time  I  should  have  been 
almost  tempted  to  recommend  him  for  an  assistant  pro- 
fessorship in  the  department  of  homiletics. 

Have  a  solid  backbone  hidden  away  somewhere  in  your 
sermon  so  that  it  can  stand  up  man-fashion  and  do  its 
work.  Organize  your  material  around  that  spinal  column, 
heads,  arms,  legs,  fleshy  parts,  muscles  to  grip  the  people 
and  nerves  to  respond  to  the  movements  of  their  own  feel- 
ings, so  that  it  may  accomplish  the  desired  end.  You 
cannot  afford  to  be  one  of  those  preachers  who  always 


108  THE  AKT  OF  PREACHING 

give  the  impression  that  having  lost  the  trail,  they  are  now 
going  hither  and  yon  on  any  chance  impulse  like  silly 
sheep  vi^hich  have  erred  and  strayed  from  the  way.  Have 
a  definite  plan  but  do  not  have  it  too  much  in  evidence. 

The  well-built  sermon  is  always  easier  to  deliver  be- 
cause the  points,  following  each  other  naturally  and  there- 
fore inevitably,  can  be  more  readily  remembered  by  the 
preacher  himself.  When  I  forget  and  leave  out  certain 
vital  points  in  one  of  my  sermons  I  always  know  that  the 
sermon  was  not  well  built.  If  that  particular  idea  had 
been  needed  just  there  in  the  construction  of  that  sermon, 
I  should  not  have  forgotten  it. 

The  well-built  sermon  will  enlist  the  interest  and  atten- 
tion of  the  people  more  completely.  Even  the  untrained 
mind  will  feel  the  lack  of  something  if  the  minister  goes 
skipping  about,  liable  to  break  out  anywhere.  The  well- 
built  sermon  is  also  more  easily  remembered  by  the  people, 
for  the  points  can  be  held  in  the  mind  to  the  spiritual 
profit  of  the  hearer.  And  the  well-built  sermon  rounds  it- 
self out  and  stops  at  last  by  virtue  of  its  own  careful  or- 
ganization. The  organic  tree  or  animal  by  the  very  ne- 
cessities of  its  own  being  comes  to  an  end  somewhere, 
while  the  inorganic  may,  like  Tennyson's  brook,  go  on 
forever.  This  is  fearfully  and  wonderfully  true  of  certain 
inorganic  sermons  as  every  patient  churchgoer  knows  full 
well. 

The  sermon  is  made  to  seem  unduly  long  by  the  man 
who  dwells  on  the  ol)vious.  It  may  be  necessary  now  and 
then  for  a  public  speaker  to  say  that  two  and  two  make 
four.  It  is  not  necessary,  however,  to  enlarge  upon  that 
statement  and  rub  it  in,  or  to  illustrate  it,  or  to  exhort  the 


THE  MEASURE  OF  THE  SERMON  109 

people  to  put  their  full,  unhesitating  trust  in  it.  The 
moment  such  a  truth  is  uttered,  the  people  are  saying,  "Wo 
know  that.  We  feel  the  full  force  of  it.  Now  what  comes 
of  it  ?  What  bearing  has  it  upon  the  problems  of  life  as 
we  face  them?    Proceed  at  once  to  what  follows." 

It  may  be  appropriate  now  and  then  for  a  preacher  to 
say  that  the  sun  rose  yesterday  morning  in  the  east  and 
on  time  as  usual.  This  is  a  perfectly  sound  statement ;  it 
would  be  regarded  as  sound  even  at  Princeton.  But  the 
people  are  only  interested  in  knowing  what  comes  of  it. 
The  fact  itself  is  instantly  apparent  without  further  effort 
on  the  part  of  the  man  who  makes  the  reference — now  let 
him  get  down  to  business  and  make  some  worthy  use  of 
what  is  so  entirely  obvious. 

Unless  you  are  unfolding  some  old  truth  in  a  new  way, 
or  making  a  fresh  application  of  some  old  truth  to  changed 
conditions,  or  by  your  vital  interpretation  of  it,  causing 
that  old  truth  to  live  over  again  in  the  hearts  of  your  peo- 
ple, you  are  in  a  fair  way  to  bore  your  congregation.  You 
will  rob  them  of  their  time  to  no  purpose  when  you  need- 
lessly dwell  upon  that  which  is  undeniably  old  and  fa- 
miliar. The  man  who  dwells  even  for  three  minutes  on 
some  perfectly  obvious  truth  will  cause  the  people  to  feel 
that  he  has  been  preaching  to  them  for  a  full  half  hour. 

The  preacher  who  dawdles  over  his  stories  and  illustra- 
tions leaves  the  impression  of  having  preached  a  long  ser- 
mon. The  illustration  is  to  be  put  out  clear  and  straight 
so  that  all  can  see  it  and  then  left  at  once  to  the  minds 
of  the  people.  It  is  safe  to  trust  something  to  their 
own  mental  capacity  in  the  way  of  application.  The 
suggestive  illustration  has  ten  times  more  force  in  it  than 


110  THE  ART  OP  PREACHING 

the  one  which  has  been  chewed  to  rags.  The  homiletic 
pabulum  which  has  been  Fletcherized  and  predigested  be- 
fore it  is  turned  over  to  the  people  for  their  sustenance 
is  never  really  appetizing.  The  perennial  charm  which 
attaches  to  the  parables  of  Christ  is  due  in  considerable 
measure  to  the  fact  that  they  suggest  so  much  more  than 
is  directly  declared.  There  are  people  who  always  mean 
exactly  what  they  say.  Our  Lord  meant  a  great  deal  more 
than  he  actually  said  in  so  many  words. 

Into  one  of  our  Connecticut  pulpits  there  came  one 
summer  a  visiting  minister  who  used  for  an  illustration 
the  pathos  which  attaches  to  an  unoccupied  house  in  the 
country  located  on  an  abandoned  farm.  It  would  have 
served  his  purpose  fairly  well,  had  he  introduced  it  in  a 
touch-and-go  manner.  But  he  dwelt  on  it.  He  described 
every  broken  window  pane  and  every  rod  of  fence.  He 
gave  us  full  details  regarding  every  patch  of  weeds  and 
every  old  stump  on  that  abandoned  farm.  He  used  it  until 
he  had  used  it  up.  And  then  ever  and  anon  he  would 
return  to  it  for  some  additional  reference.  He  kept  that 
'"abandoned  farm"  before  that  suffering  congregation  un- 
til any  man  present  would  have  bought  it  from  him  at  any 
price  the  minister  might  have  chosen  to  name,  simply  to 
get  it  out  of  his  hands.  The  people  are  wearied  and  the 
force  of  an  illustration  is  altogether  destroyed  by  the  habit 
of  dawdling  over  the  insignificant  details.  In  speaking 
to  the  people  as  well  as  in  speaking  to  the  Lord  "use  not 
vain  repetitions"  as  the  heathen  do. 

The  steady  monotone,  sometimes  known  among  the  un- 
godly as  the  "preaching  tone,"  will  make  any  sermon 
seem  long.    The  droning  of  a  sawmill  at  a  distance,  or  the 


THE  MEASURE  OF  THE  SERMON  111 

steady  rumble  of  some  easy  going  railroad  train  will  often- 
times lull  a  wide-awake  man  to  sleep.  The  monotonous 
droning  of  a  preacher's  delivery  in  a  similar  way  may 
take  away  all  desire  to  listen  or  even  to  stay  awake.  If 
such  ministers  would  open  a  sanitarium  for  insomnia,  the 
only  other  equipment  they  would  need  would  be  beds — 
their  own  homiletic  efforts  would  provide  all  the  necessary 
treatment. 

The  man  who  is  uniformly  earnest,  uniformly  tender, 
uniformly  emphatic ;  the  man  who  is  striving  to  say  some- 
thing appealing  and  helpful  with  every  breath  he  draws, 
becomes  wearisome.  If  he  would  only  drop  now  and  then 
into  some  colloquialism  for  a  moment  or  rise  occasionally 
to  something  impassioned,  it  would  aid  him  greatly  in 
holding  the  attention  of  his  people. 

The  conversational  method  wears  better  than  any  other, 
because  it  has  in  it  more  of  the  element  of  variety,  and  be- 
cause it  also  strikes  more  effectually  the  human  note. 
And  when  everything  is  said  and  done,  preaching  is  talk- 
ing— it  is  talking  on  a  serious  subject  to  serious-minded 
people  for  serious  ends.  But  at  its  best  it  is  talking  rather 
than  oratory.  How  much  is  suggested  where  we  read, 
*'He  opened  his  mouth  and  taught  them."  The  natural- 
ness and  the  inevitableness  of  what  he  said,  springing  as 
it  did  directly  out  of  what  he  was,  are  there  suggested  in 
that  effective  comment.  He  simply  opened  his  mouth — 
and  out  it  came  in  the  most  natural  way  in  the  world. 

The  conclusions  of  sermons  which  are  a  long  time  in 
concluding  tend  to  make  these  sermons  seem  long.  The 
minister  who  is  accustomed  to  say,  "ISTow  one  thing  more" 
would  better  not  make  it  sixteen  more.    If  he  says,  ''Now, 


112  THE  ART  OF  PREACHING 

in  conclusion,"  let  him  conclude  promptly.  He  ought  to 
keep  faith  with  the  people  when  once  he  awakens  a  joyful 
expectation  of  that  sort  in  their  minds.  It  is  never  wise 
to  trifle  with  the  feelings  of  a  congregation  on  anything  so 
sacred  and  vital  as  the  conclusion  of  a  sermon.  You  have 
all  heard  sermons  which  dragged  along  and  seemed  to 
indicate  that  the  preacher  did  not  know  on  what  street 
the  grand  terminal  was  to  he  found.  When  the  patience 
of  the  genial  "Autocrat  of  the  Breakfast  Table"  was  once 
being  thus  tried  at  a  tiresome  service  he  whispered  to  his 
companion,  "Do  you  suppose  by  any  chance  he  has  en- 
tirely forgotten  the  conclusion  of  his  sermon?" 

Furthermore,  the  moment  a  preacher  begins  to  throw 
in  those  encouraging  asides  "Just  one  thing  more"  or 
"Now  in  conclusion"  he  makes  many  of  his  hearers  un- 
easy. They  feel  as  if  they  ought  to  be  getting  their  rub- 
bers on  in  place  of  listening  with  undivided  attention  to 
what  may  be  the  most  vital  portion  of  the  man's  ser- 
mon. 

It  is  possible  to  bring  people  into  a  fine  mood  of  Chris- 
tian aspiration  and  of  high  resolve,  and  then  by  useless 
reiteration  and  wearisome  exhortation  to  get  them  out 
of  that  mood  again,  so  that  some  of  them  will  go  away 
almost  sorry  that  they  came  to  church.  "Exhorting"  and 
"exhausting"  not  only  sound  alike — in  the  effect  produced 
upon  many  a  congregation  the  two  processes  there  indi- 
,  cated  are  very  much  alike.  Remember  always  that  you 
.  are  preaching  for  the  sake  of  the  people.  You  are  not 
preaching  to  fill  up  a  given  amount  of  time,  or  to  get  a 
certain  number  of  ideas  off  of  your  mind.  And  when 
the  sermon  has  really  accomplished  its  high  end  in  making 


THE  MEASURE  OF  THE  SERMON  113 

a  definite  spiritual  impression,  it  had  better  stop  before 
that  result  is  marred. 

In  my  own  practice,  while  I  never  use  a  manuscript  in 
preaching,  there  are  five  sentences  in  my  sermon  which  I 
always  write  out  in  advance  and  know  by  heart — the  first 
one  and  the  last  four.  I  like  to  begin,  if  I  can,  with  a 
sentence  as  good  as  I  know  how  to  make  it,  so  that  the 
first  ball  may  be  pitched,  if  possible,  right  over  the  plate 
and  at  the  proper  level.  And  I  want  to  have  the  last  four 
sentences  definitely  in  mind  so  that  I  may  not  be  left 
circling  around  in  the  air,  like  some  helpless  crow,  flying 
to  and  fro  above  a  rail  fence  where  the  stakes  have  all  been 
sharpened,  seeking  in  vain  for  a  suitable  place  to  light. 

When  the  minister  has  gotten  his  case  all  in,  strong  and 
clear  as  he  can  make  it,  then  let  him  utter  a  few  swift 
sentences  to  send  it  home  and  lodge  it  permanently  in  the 
minds  and  hearts  of  the  people,  and  then  cease.  If  he 
leaves  them  wishing  that  he  had  gone  on  for  five  or  ten 
minutes  more,  it  will  not  do  any  harm.  If  they  are  still 
a  bit  hungry,  they  will  be  more  apt  to  come  back  for  fur- 
ther spiritual  rations  on  the  following  Sunday. 

It  is  a  good  rule  in  physical  hygiene  to  leave  the  table 
while  one  could  still  eat  a  little  more  if  he  were  urged. 
It  makes  for  good  digestion  and  for  the  continuance  of 
that  healthy  appetite  which  brings  us  back  to  the  table 
again  and  again  each  time  with  an  eager  relish  for  what- 
ever may  be  there  in  store  for  us.  You  can  apply  the  same 
principle  to  preaching.  If  your  people  are  allowed  to 
leave  their  pews  some  little  time  before  they  are  com- 
pletely surfeited  by  the  undeniably  good  things  you  are 
urging  upon  them,  they  will  be  more  ready  to  come  back 


114  THE  ART  OF  PREACHING 

when  the  bell  rings  and  another  feast  is  spread  for  them 
in  the  house  of  the  Lord.  In  preaching  as  in  prayer  men 
are  not  heard  for  their  much  speaking. 

Now  having  indicated  some  things  which  are  calculated 
to  make  the  sermon  seem  long,  let  me  also  indicate  certain 
qualities  which  make  the  sermon  seem  short.     The  first 

/I  l^ne  is  to  be  found  in  not  making  the  sermon  too  long  when 
it  is  prepared.  I  believe  in  preparing  a  sermon  which  is 
an  hour  in  length  as  to  its  real  content  and  then  condens- 
ing it  so  that  it  can  be  preached  in  twenty-five  or  thirty 
minutes.  This  can  be  done  to  the  profit  of  all  your  hearers. 
In  your  unregenerate  fishing  days,  before  you  learned 
to  fish  properly  with  a  fly,  you  may  have  resorted  to  bait. 
You  will  remember  how  those  long,  squirming  angle- 
worms could  vary  their  length.  One  of  them  might  easily 
extend  himself  until  he  would  measure  six  inches,  and 
then  suddenly  at  the  prick  of  the  sharp  hook,  he  could 
cuddle  himself  together  until  he  was  not  more  than  two 
inches  long.  But  there  was  no  more  worm  in  the  elon- 
gated edition  than  there  was  in  the  worm  of  briefer  com- 
pass. If  the  mother  bird  had  been  feeding  her  young, 
the  nest  full  of  birdlings  would  have  derived  just  as  much 
proteid  from  the  condensed  edition.  And  when  we  have 
learned  the  high  art  of  condensation  so  that  an  hour  of 
talk  may  be  compacted  into  twenty-five  minutes,  without 
the  loss  of  a  single  idea,  the  people  will  derive  as  much, 
and  even  more,  spiritual  proteid  from  our  efforts  as  a  re- 
sult of  the  condensation. 

^  The  high  art  of  saying  things  without  using  up  too 
much  of  the  English  language  in  the  process  is  one  to  be 
cultivated.     It  is  well  for  the  minister  to  study  the  art 


THE  MEASURE  OF  THE  SERMON  115 

of  packing  his  sentences  with  meaning.  Try  it  on !  You 
will  be  amazed  at  the  results  you  can  achieve.  Write  a 
whole  page  and  then  condense  the  entire  meaning  of  it 
into  a  single  paragraph.  Then  by  a  further  condensation 
bring  it  within  the  compass  of  three  sentences.  You  will 
find  that  it  can  be  done  without  loss. 

The  man  who  packs  a  Saratoga  trunk  for  a  trip  to 
Europe  may  be  constrained  by  circumstances  to  select  the 
really  necessary  things  and  put  them  into  a  small  steamer 
trunk.  He  may  then  even  be  compelled  by  a  further  call 
for  the  condensation  of  his  luggage  to  bring  the  needful 
articles  into  such  compass  that  they  can  be  carried  in  a 
suitcase.  He  will  commonly  find  that  as  a  result  of  this 
compression  he  still  has  all  that  he  really  needs  for  the 
trip  and  his  joy  will  be  much  heightened  by  this  reduction 
in  the  amount  of  baggage  to  be  carried  about.  Hear  then 
the  parable  of  traveling  in  marching  order !  Apply  the 
content  of  it  to  the  work  of  outfitting  your  sermons  for 
their  weekly  trip  into  the  minds  of  a  congregation. 

I  am  not  here  pleading  for  the  use  of  epigrams.  The 
smart,  snappy,  self-conscious  epigram  very  frequently 
sacrifices  truth  for  the  sake  of  a  phrase.  Many  epigrams 
indeed  earn  their  living  by  that  sort  of  self-sacrifice.  The 
congregation  doomed  to  live  on  the  smart,  snappy,  and 
half-impudent  Elbert  Hubbard  type  of  sentence  is  in  for 
a  sorry  time.  It  may  be  well  to  have  the  mustard  pot  and 
the  pepper  box  on  the  table,  but  to  attempt  to  make  them 
serve  in  lieu  of  roast  beef  and  good  bread  would  be  ruinous 
to  digestion  and  it  would  result  in  starvation. 

But  the  minister  can  use  short  words  rather  than  long 
Greek  and  Latin  derivatives.    The  intricate  and  extended 


116  THE  ART  OF  PREACHINa 

pliilosophical  and  theological  words,  whicli  would  not  go 
into  a  suitcase  without  being  folded  twice,  may  be  replaced 
by  shorter  and  more  expressive  terms.  When  you  count 
the  monosyllables  in  the  finest  passages  of  Shakespeare, 
or  in  Lincoln's  Gettysburg  Address,  or  in  the  King  James 
version  of  the  Bible,  you  find  how  a  simple,  terse,  expres- 
sive style  can  be  built  up  by  the  use  of  short  words. 

It  was  Charles  Kingsley  who  advocated  the  plan  of 
putting  a  tax  on  long  words.  "A  light  tax  on  words  of 
over  three  syllables  which  are  necessary  evils  like  rats, 
but  which  like  them  must  be  kept  down  judiciously:  a 
heavy  tax  on  words  of  over  four  syllables,  heterodoxy, 
spontaneity,  spuriosity  and  the  like;  and  on  words  of 
over  five  syllables  a  totally  prohibitory  tax." 

You  are  to  speak  "to  every  man  in  the  tongue  in  which 
he  was  born."  'Now  no  man  was  ever  "born"  in  the  pro- 
fessional patois  of  the  theological  school  or  the  philosoph- 
ical club.  The  Lord  who  is  merciful  and  gracious  would 
not  allow  it — he  would  not  permit  any  innocent  child  to 
start  off  with  such  a  cruel  handicap.  It  is  a  habit  and  a 
bad  habit  at  that.  It  is  an  acquired  taste  and  in  the  pres- 
ence of  an  untrained  public  a  vicious  taste.  It  may  be 
well  enough  to  speak  that  language  when  we  are  address- 
ing those  who  thoroughly  understand  it  but  not  otherwise. 
"  J  If  you  would  interest  and  influence  everyday  people  you 
must  speak  to  them  habitually  in  the  language  of  every- 
day life. 

We  find  this  literary  habit  running  all  through  Shake- 
speare, It  is  significant  that  the  two  most  familiar  and 
-  most  noble  monuments  of  literary  expression  in  our  Eng- 
lish language,  the  King  James  Version  of  the  Bible  and 


THE  MEASURE  OF  THE  SERMON  117 

Shakespeare's  Plays,  were  put  forth  at  almost  the  same 
time  and  they  both  show  the  same  high  quality  of  English. 
The  King  James  Version  of  the  Bible  was  published  in 
IGll,  Shakespeare  retired  from  the  theater  in  that  same 
year  and  died  in  1616.  Hear  this  speech  of  Mark  Antony 
at  the  funeral  of  Julius  Caesar ! 

''I  am  no  orator  as  Brutus  is: 
But  as  you  know  me  all,  a  plain,  blunt  man 
That  loves  my  friend;  and  that  they  know  full  well 
That  gave  me  public  leave  to  speak  of  him : 
For  I  have  neither  wit  nor  words  nor  worth.'' 

There  are  forty-five  words  in  that  passage,  forty-one  of 
them  monosyllables — only  three  words  in  that  entire  pas- 
sage aside  from  the  proper  name  "Brutus"  have  more  than 
a  single  syllable. 

Or  these  great  words  so  familiar  to  us  all ! 

"Who  steals  my  purse,  steals  trash; 
'Tis  something,  nothing.    'Twas  mine,  'tis  his. 
And  has  been  slave  to  thousands. 

But  he  that  filches  from  me  my  good  name 
Robs  me  of  that  which  not  enriches  him 
And  makes  me  poor  indeed." 

Here  again  are  forty-one  words,  all  but  five  of  them 
monosyllables !  The  minister  who  would  cause  words  to  go 
home  to  men's  hearts  like  rifle  shots  should  read  Shake- 
speare and  the  King  James  Version  until  they  have  fur- 
nished him,  as  it  were,  the  natural  method  of  his  daily 
speech. 


118  THE  ART  OF  PREACHING 

The  same  principle  holds  regarding  short  sentences. 
The  sentence  should  go  straight  to  the  mark  without  loiter- 
ing. The  sentence  that  hesitates  is  lost,  if  it  be  found  in 
the  steep  places  of  a  sermon.  The  sentence  should  be  so 
full  of  life  as  to  bleed  if  one  were  to  cut  into  it  anywhere. 
Those  sentences  which  sprawl  and  are  covered  all  over 
with  out-reaching  tentacles  will  never  have  the  efficiency 
belonging  to  those  sentences  which  are  straight  and  true 
with  genuine  vitality  in  every  inch  of  them.  The  sentences 
which  are  propped  up  all  along  with  qualifying  clauses 
and  modifying  statements,  as  if  the  main  truth  were  quite 
unable  to  stand  alone,  confuse  the  audience  and  retard 
the  speaker.  By  the  use  of  short  words  and  short  sen- 
tences a  vast  amount  of  thought  may  be  successfully 
brought  into  brief  compass. 

There  are  special  occasions  when  it  may  be  appropriate 
for  a  man  to  preach  for  an  hour.  You  may  be  dealing 
with  some  great  doctrine  or  with  some  other  mighty  theme, 
when  you  will  need  forty-five  or  fifty  or  even  sixty  min- 
utes really  to  open  it  up  from  shore  to  shore.  But  on  all 
ordinary  occasions  the  sermon  of  twenty-five  or  thirty 
minutes  will  accomplish  vastly  more  good  than  the  one 
which  is  drawn  out  to  an  hour.  We  are  living  in  the  day 
of  the  short  story,  the  quick  lunch,  the  sharp  ring  at  the 
telephone,  the  swift  flight  of  the  automobile.  It  is  the 
day  of  short  things  and  the  man  who  would  address, and 
serve  his  generation  aright  must  steadily  take  into  account 
the  prevailing  moods. 

It  is  well  for  the  preacher  to  have  a  clock  or  a  watch 
(to  do  justice  finally  to  these  useful  time-keepers)  where 


THE  MEASURE  OF  THE  SERMON  119 

he  can  see  it  during  the  delivery  of  his  sermon.  While 
the  clock  does  not  determine  the  real  length  of  the  sermon 
but  only  its  apparent  length,  it  is  well  for  the  speaker 
to  train  himself  in  good  habits.  Even  though  he  may  be 
lifting  his  people  into  the  third  heaven  by  the  power  of 
his  spiritual  appeal,  so  that  they  do  not  know  whether 
they  are  in  the  body  or  out  of  the  body,  it  is  well  for  him 
to  know  how  long  they  have  been  up  there  on  that  high 
level  of  feeling.  It  will  be  necessary  for  them  to  come 
down  presently  so  as  not  to  be  late  for  the  Sunday  dinner. 
The  minister  therefore  had  better  know  what  time  of  day 
it  is,  even  when  he  is  mounting  up  with  wings  like  an 
eagle. 

Furthermore,  human  nature  constructed  as  it  is  can  only 
stand  such  rapturous  exaltation  for  comparatively  brief 
periods.  It  is  wise  therefore  for  the  minister,  however 
gifted  he  may  be  in  causing  congregations  to  ascend  to 
those  higher  levels  of  spiritual  feeling,  to  understand  to 
what  length  his  sermon  has  already  extended.  He  must 
be  ready  at  the  proper  time  to  bring  the  people  back  to 
their  accustomed  level  where  with  renewed  strength  they 
can  walk  in  the  way  of  duty  and  not  faint. 

If  a  man  speaks  habitually  with  a  clock  or  a  watch 
where  he  can  see  it,  he  may  also  be  trained  perhaps  to 
become  a  bit  more  conscientious,  than  many  ministers 
seem  to  be,  toward  the  other  speakers  who  are  to  follow 
them  on  some  extended  program.  There  are  ministers  in 
every  religious  convention  who  will  speak  twenty  minutes 
when  they  have  been  asked  to  speak  ten:  they  will  take 
forty  minutes  if  twenty  has  been  the  assignment. 


120  THE  ART  OF  PREACHING 

I  hope  those  brethren  may  go  to  Heaven  when  they  die ! 
I  have  faith  to  believe  that  some  of  them  will.  The  Lord's 
hand  is  not  shortened  that  it  cannot  save,  even  such  ex- 
asperating sinners  as  they  have  been.  But  I  have  a  feeling 
that  all  such  men  should  be  compelled  to  learn  the  West- 
minster Catechism  by  heart  and  that  they  should  be  com- 
pelled to  remain  for  two  or  three  hundred  years  in  some 
sort  of  purgatory  where  they  would  have  to  recite  that 
Catechism  from  end  to  end  three  times  a  day  before  meals, 
and  then  be  forced  to  spend  the  rest  of  their  waking  hours 
in  hearing  one  another  talk.  By  the  godly  sorrow  thus 
induced  in  them,  they  might  at  last  be  brought  into  a  bet- 
ter frame  of  mind  and  be  admitted  to  the  society  of  the 
blessed. 

But  watch  the  people  as  well  as  the  clock.  The  hands 
on  the  clock  may  not  point  to  the  time  when  you  ought 
to  stop,  but  if  the  eyes  and  the  minds  of  the  people  indi- 
cate that  the  sermon  might  appropriately  end  just  there, 
end  it.  The  Apostle  Paul  himself  sometimes  preached 
too  long.  He  certainly  preached  too  long  on  a  certain 
night  of  which  we  have  record.  "There  was  a  young 
man,"  the  Scripture  says — "a  young  man"  rather  than 
one  of  those  dear  old  saints  who  having  already  heard 
enough  of  preaching  to  see  them  safely  through,  might 
be  pardoned  for  dozing  off — "there  was  a  young  man 
named  Eutychus,"  who  went  to  sleep  and  fell  out  of  the 
window  and  all  but  broke  his  neck  while  Paul  was  preach- 
ing.   These  things  were  written,  brethren,  for  our  warning ! 

On  all  ordinary  occasions  a  period  of  twenty-five  or 
thirty  minutes  is  ample  for  any  sermon.  If  you  have  not 
struck  oil  by  that  time,  the  chances  are  that  you  are 


THE  MEASURE  OF  THE  SERMON  121 

horing — I  use  this  term  advisedly  and  in  its  full  strength 
— the  chances  are  that  you  are  boring  in  the  wrong  place. 
If  you  have  struck  a  good  flow  of  oil,  the  vessels  of  your 
people  will  he  full  at  the  expiration  of  that  period.  And 
when  they  are  full,  they  are  full.  You  could  not  do  any- 
thing more  for  them  if  you  held  on  in  the  same  effective 
way  for  another  half  hour.  You  can  therefore  close  your 
sermon  with  a  clear  conscience  as  one  who  has  delivered 
his  soul  and  has  profited  his  people. 

The  sermon  seems  shorter  where  the  minister  does  not 
stop  to  prove  everything,  nor  to  explain  everything.  Jesus 
never  stopped  to  prove  anything.  He  spoke  about  God, 
and  about  duty,  about  prayer,  and  about  redemption,  about 
the  kingdom  of  heaven  and  the  future  life,  as  great  valid 
certainties.  He  was  so  sure  of  them  that  he  made  others 
sure  of  them.    He  did  not  argue ;  he  proclaimed. 

It  may  be  appropriate  on  occasion  to  show  that  our 
claims  are  grounded  in  moral  reason  and  that  they  will 
stand  all  the  tests  applied  to  them  by  rigorous,  intellec- 
tual scrutiny.  But  in  the  main,  it  is  much  better  to  as- 
sume the  great  fundamental  verities  and  set  them  forth 
with  power.  Let  those  great  truths  out  and  they  will 
take  care  of  themselves !  They  will  prove  their  own  valid- 
ity by  certifying  themselves  in  an  enlarged  and  ennobled 
spiritual  experience  on  the  part  of  those  who  receive  them. 

You  can  learn  to  preach  a  great  deal  in  a  short  time. 
The  people  will  feel  the  length  and  the  breadth,  the  height 
and  the  depth  of  some  august  truth  as  you  put  it  forth, 
even  though  you  may  not  bring  out  in  detail  all  of  its  rich 
and  varied  content.  The  sense  of  limitless  spiritual  value 
is  there  in  that  segment  of  truth  which  you  concisely  pro- 


122  THE  ART  OF  PREACHING 

claim  even  though  you  are  leaving  a  very  great  deal  to  the 
spiritual  imagination. 

I  have  preached,  as  no  douht  every  minister  has,  when 
I  did  not  seem  to  get  my  proper  connections  made,  either 
perpendicularly  or  horizontally.  I  toiled  in  rowing  and 
the  wind  was  contrary.  I  did  not  get  anywhere  even 
though  I  persevered  entirely  too  long  for  the  comfort  of 
the  patient  listeners.  My  head  felt  like  Noah's  Ark.  It 
was  made  of  gopher  wood.  It  was  covered  with  pitch 
without  and  within,  rendering  it  impervious  to  all  new 
ideas  or  to  any  sort  of  inspiration  from  on  high  or  from 
the  waiting  congregation.  I  could  feel  crawling  around 
within  it  all  manner  of  four-footed  notions  and  creeping 
things.  But  I  could  not  set  them  in  any  kind  of  marching 
order,  to  say  nothing  of  causing  them  to  fly  in  the  open 
heavens.  And  I  went  home  that  day  with  a  feeling  that 
after  all  I  would  better  have  followed  my  noble  father's 
example  and  have  become  an  honest  and  useful  farmer. 

There  have  been  other  days,  however,  when  I  did  get 
my  connections  made,  horizontally  and  perpendicularly. 
The  word  of  the  Lord  had  free  course.  It  ran  and  was 
glorified.  It  came  from  Him,  through  me,  to  the  people. 
And  on  those  days  I  felt  like  the  Ark  of  the  Covenant. 
There  was  nothing  in  me  save  the  two  Tables  of  the  Law 
which  Moses  put  there,  and  the  grace  and  truth  which 
came  by  Jesus  Christ.  I  was  deeply  conscious  of  the 
fact  that  I  was  actually  giving  to  those  hungry  souls  of 
my  own  best  and  the  best  of  that  which  had  been  given 
me  from  above.  And  on  those  days  I  went  home  with  a 
deep,  sweet  sense  of  gratitude  to  God  that  He  had  made; 
me  a  preacher  of  the  Gospel  of  the  Lord  Jesus  Christ. 


THE   LIGHTER  ELEMENTS  OF  THE   SERMON 

IT  is  a  sound  principle  in  the  science  of  nutrition  that 
life  is  best  sustained  where  it  is  not  fed  upon  undi- 
luted proteid.  Baked  beans  and  brown  bread  are 
nourishing  as  practical  N^ew  England  knows  full  well. 
But  it  is  possible  to  have  the  food  supply  in  such  concen- 
trated form  as  to  defeat  its  own  ends.  Bulk  for  bulk, 
there  are  a  great  many  more  calories  in  broiled  bacon, 
fried  eggs,  baked  potatoes  and  corn  muffins,  than  are  to  be 
found  in  like  quantities  of  spinach  and  celery,  of  turnips 
and  lettuce,  of  tomatoes  or  bran.  But  the  coarser  and  less 
nourishing  foods  have  their  normal  and  useful  place  in 
the  high  task  of  nourishing  life.  They  not  only  serve  the 
purpose  of  eliminating  waste ;  they  also  aid  in  the  process 
of  assimilating  and  absorbing  the  food  values  in  the  richer 
forms  of  sustenance. 

In  like  manner  the  sermon  may  well  contain  elements 
other  than  those  which  belong  to  pure  religious  instruction. 
"The  sincere  milk  of  the  word"  and  that  solid,  satisfying 
"meat  which  comes  down  from  above"  .to  give  life  to  the 
world,  will  be  more  readily  assimilated  by  the  children  of 
the  Kingdom  if  other  less  nutritious  elements  are  placed 
alongside  of  them  on  the  table  of  shewbread.  Man  shall 
not  live  by  sound  doctrine  alone,  even  though  the  truth 
contained  therein  may  be  incontrovertible  and  the  state- 
ment of  it  clear  and  accurate  beyond  all  peradventure. 

123 


124  THE  ART  OF  PREACHING 

There  are  certain  lighter  substances  which  have  a  right- 
ful place  in  the  sermon.  They  serve  to  gain  attention,  to 
relieve  the  strain  of  steady  listening  to  the  presentation  of 
abstract  truth,  and  they  contribute  mightily  to  the  sense  of 
help  which  the  hearers  will  bear  away  from  a  well-pro- 
portioned message. 

In  this  lecture  I  desire  to  speak  of  three  of  these  lighter 
elements,  illustration,  humor  and  those  aspects  of  truth 
which  are  best  brought  out  by  the  use  of  the  imagination. 

The  word  illustrate  means  literally  to  throw  light  or 
luster  upon  anything.  The  illustration  is  never  to  be  re- 
garded as  an  end  in  itself;  it  shines  for  the  sake  of  some- 
thing beyond.  When  the  lighted  candle  is  held  up  to  the 
painting,  it  is  not  intended  that  the  beholders  should  look 
at  the  candle  but  at  the  painting  upon  which  the  candle 
throws  its  light.  When  the  speaker  has  uttered  some 
weighty  truth,  some  valid  argument,  some  fundamental 
principle  of  life,  he  may  well  pick  up  an  illustration  to 
shed  further  light  upon  that  which  he  would  have  the 
people  see.  "Arguments  are  the  pillars  of  a  discourse, 
illustrations  are  the  windows  which  let  in  the  light." 

The  illustration  is  a  concrete  picture  as  distinguished 
f;;-om  t-he  dry,  abstract  statement  of  truth.  Now  all  chil- 
dren love  pictures — they  must  have  them.  The  people 
in  our  congregations  for  the  most  part  are  only  grown-up 
children.  The  phenomenal  popularity  of  the  "movies" 
testifies  to  the  wide-spread  demand  for  pictures.  The 
larger  circulation  of  magazines  which  are  profusely  illus- 
trated as  compared  with  the  more  sober  reviews  like  the 
Atlantic  Monthly  and  the  North  American^  emphasizes 
this  same  preference. 


LIGHTER  ELEMENTS  OF  THE  SERMON      125 

The  Master  knew  what  was  in  man  and  how  his  need 
could  best  be  met.  He  therefore  "spake  many  things  unto 
them  in  parables" — that  is  to  say,  in  pictures.  In  the 
Sermon  on  the  Mount,  brief  though  it  is,  there  are  no  less 
than  fifty-six  metaphors,  which  are  really  word  pictures. 
Salt,  light,  candle,  bushel,  treasure,  moth,  rust,  lilies, 
ravens,  splinter,  beam,  bread,  fish,  scorpion — these  are 
samples.  Fifty-six  of  them!  The  entire  Sermon  on  the 
Mount  can  be  read  aloud  in  fifteen  minutes.  These  fifty- 
six  metaphors  mean  therefore  that  in  this  particular  utter- 
ance word  pictures  came  from  His  lips  at  the  rate  of  more 
than  three  per  minute. 

His  parables  have  gone  out  throughout  the  world  and 
the  meaning  of  them  unto  the  ends  of  the  earth.  There 
is  no  speech  nor  language  where  their  voice  is  not  heard. 
And  the  picturesque  quality  of  His  teaching  as  well  as 
the  glorious  content  of  it  has  helped  to  gain  for  it  this 
wider  currency  and  to  increase  immeasurably  its  power 
of  appeal. 

He  likened  the  methods  and  the  manifestations  of  the 
kingdom  of  heaven  to  that  which  is  found  in  yeast,  in  the 
varieties  of  soil,  in  the  varying  fate  of  the  seed,  in  the 
work  of  the  pearl-fisher,  in  the  struggle  of  the  wheat  and 
the  tares  in  a  single  field,  in  the  brooding  attitude  of  the 
hen  who  would  gather  her  chickens  under  her  wings,  in 
the  action  of  the  woman  sweeping  her  house  to  find  a  coin 
which  was  lost,  in  the  search  of  the  shepherd  for  the  lost 
sheep,  in  the  behavior  of  wellbred  and  illbred  guests  at  a 
wedding  and  in  many  another  well  drawn  picture  which 
served  as  a  symbol  of  religious  truth.  There  are  thirty- 
odd  full-fledged  parables  in  the  teachings  of  Christ. 


126  THE  ART  OF  PREACHING 

He  was  an  oriental  himself  and  he  was  addressing  the 
oriental  mind.  His  mode  of  speech,  however,  has  so  com- 
mended itself  to  men  and  women  of  all  nations  and  peo- 
ples, of  all  kindreds  and  tongues,  that  we  may  fittingly 
follow  his  method  in  the  generous  use  of  illustration.  His 
customary  method  will  be  found  to  have  great  pedagogical 
value  in  every  country  where  the  sun  shines. 

Where  the  illustration  is  fittingly  chosen  and  clearly 
phrased,  it  accomplishes  these  four  results.  First  it  serves 
to  make  one's  meaning  more  clear.  We  are  addressing 
Sunday  after  Sunday  a  great  many  people  who  do  very 
little  hard  reading.  They  are  not  accustomed  to  think  in 
abstract  terms.  They  need  to  see  the  truth  with  their  eyes 
as  well  as  to  hear  it  with  their  ears.  The  untrained  mind 
will  follow  you  somewhat  laboriously  through  a  carefully 
reasoned  argument.  It  may  possibly  begin  to  fear  lest  it 
has  lost  the  trail,  but  a  well-selected  illustration  will  enable 
it  to  come  at  once  out  into  the  open  where  it  will  see  the 
full  meaning  of  all  that  went  before.  "I  see  it,"  the  man 
says  to  himself  as  this  fresh  light  falls  upon  your  presen- 
tation which  so  long  as  it  was  left  in  abstract  statements, 
had  been  somewhat  baffling. 

The  illustration  will  help  your  people  to  remember  the 
truth  you  have  taught.  It  is  hard  to  fix  an  abstract  idea  in 
the  mind  of  a  man  whose  main  concern  is  with  things  that 
are  seen.  The  picture  sticks.  The  people  who  sit  in  our 
pews  live  mainly  in  the  concrete.  When  these  truths  are 
by  skillful  illustration  related  to  the  plain,  hard  facts  with 
which  they  are  accustomed  to  deal  in  home  life  and  in 
farm  life,  in  industry  and  in  commerce,  the  meaning 
abides  with  them. 


LIGHTER  ELEMENTS  OF  THE  SERMON      127 

I  may  indicate  the  tendency  of  the  mind  to  hold  effec- 
tively the  illustration,  even  where  the  logical  argument 
which  preceded  it  may  have  slipped  away,  by  an  experi- 
ence of  my  own.  I  listened  many  years  ago  to  an  Easter 
sermon  by  one  of  the  leading  preachers  of  America.  I 
had  completely  forgotten  his  text  and  the  main  points  in 
the  development  of  his  theme  until  they  were  recalled  to 
my  mind  recently  when  I  found  the  sermon  in  a  published 
volume.  There  was,  however,  a  single  illustration  used 
by  him  that  morning  which  had  remained  with  me  during 
all  the  intervening  years.  Whenever  I  had  recalled  the 
features  of  that  illustration  (as  I  had  done  many  times) 
I  felt  again  the  full  power  of  his  Easter  message.  Here 
is  the  splendid  picture  which  he  painted  that  day  before 
our  eyes! 

"We  make  too  much  of  death.  We  do  not  dwell  enough 
on  the  soul  and  its  ongoing  might.  As  one  sails  the  beau- 
tiful Mediterranean,  round  whose  shores  so  much  that  is 
greatest  in  human  history  took  place,  whose  winds  and 
■^vaves  bear  in  them  sacred  and  glorious  memories,  whose 
coast-lines  and  the  mountain  ranges  behind  them  represent 
so  many  of  the  splendid  years  of  our  race,  one  shrinks 
from  leaving  it.  Then,  too,  the  sea  itself  contracts  toward 
the  west,  the  shores  draw  together,  and  there  in  the  way 
of  the  ongoing  mariner  are  the  straits  so  narrow,  so  ap- 
parently impassable,  so  like  the  end. 

"But  as  one  advances,  the  illusion  vanishes.  The  straits 
are  narrow  and  yet  they  are  wide  enough  for  the  mightiest 
ship;  the  straits  are  narrow  and  full  of  gloom,  but  they 
are  not  the  end.  On  past  the  great  rock  at  the  entrance, 
on  through  the  six-and-thirty  miles  of  contracted  life,  on- 


128  THE  ART  OF  PEEACHING 

ward  in  solemn  haste  and  high  confidence,  your  ship  goes 
and  out  into  a  greater  sea,  the  glow  of  light  and  lines  of 
fire  on  the  whole  distant  horizon  are  the  call  of  love  from 
afar  and  the  tender  welcome  home. 

"Such  is  our  life  on  this  sea  of  time.  Its  winds  and 
waves,  its  tides  and  shores  are  rich  in  the  treasures  of 
human  love.  Who  does  not  love  this  sea  set  in  the  frame- 
work of  the  worthiest  and  happiest  that  man  has  done, 
that  man  may  know?  Who  does  not  rejoice  in  it  at  its 
widest  and  greatest  ?  Who  does  not  watch  with  pain  the 
inevitable  lessening  ?  Who,  as  the  years  come  and  go,  does 
not  become  conscious  of  a  shrinkage  of  being,  and  that 
there  in  his  path  is  death,  narrow,  wild,  the  abode  of  ut- 
ter gloom  ?  Is  it  not  the  end,  and  in  it  shall  we  not  lose 
forever  this  enchanting  human  world? 

"]!^ot  so.  In  that  narrow  passage  there  is  room  enough 
for  the  greatest  soul  to  go.  Let  it  go  in  solemn  confidence 
and  serene  hope!  Beyond  is  the  infinite,  and  out  into 
that  infinite  the  soul  shall  sail  to  see  again  the  abiding 
values  and  splendors  of  the  heart,  to  note  on  the  tides  that 
draw  it  onward  the  welcome  of  the  eternal  love  and  the 
gracious  light  that  cannot  fail." 

The  well  drawn  picture  sends  the  truth  home  and  causes 
it  to  stick  like  a  burr  in  the  moral  natures  of  those  who 
felt  the  full  force  of  the  ideas  it  contained.  How  effective 
was  ISTathan  the  prophet  when  he  went  to  rebuke  the  king 
for  his  frightful  sin  against  the  honest,  heroic  Uriah! 
He  drew  that  picture  of  the  meanness  of  a  rich  man  who 
spared  his  own  flock  but  stole  the  one  ewe  lamb  of  a  poor 
peasant  that  he  might  place  a  toothsome  roast  before  his 
guest.     The  guilty  king  flamed  with  anger  against  the 


LIGHTER  ELEMENTS  OF  THE  SERMON      129 

cold-blooded  cruelty  of  such  an  action.  Then  the  prophet 
with  his  rapier  thrust  lodged  his  rebuke  where  it  would 
be  felt  and  remembered.  "Thou  art  the  man."  I  wonder 
if  the  shepherd  king  ever  looked  again  upon  the  meager 
flock  of  some  poor  man  without  feeling  afresh  the  sting 
of  remorse.  "Seeing  is  believing"  we  say;  and  certainly 
seeing  is  feeling. 

The  illustration  is  also  capable  of  varied  and  continued 
application.  It  is  elastic  in  its  meaning.  A  statement 
from  the  multiplication  table  leaves  nothing  to  the  imag- 
ination. When  we  say  that  "two  times  two  are  four," 
the  returns  are  all  in.  When  we  read  a  parable  of  the 
Master,  it  yields  at  once  a  certain  meaning.  But  this 
by  no  means  exhausts  its  possibilities.  The  parable  will 
be  read  and  re-read  by  succeeding  generations.  It  will 
receive  fresh  and  vital  interpretation  and  application  un- 
der conditions  radically  changed.  This  bestows  upon  it  a 
kind  of  immortality  of  influence.  The  very  fact  that  it 
is  an  illustration,  suggesting  more  than  it  defines,  will 
give  it  an  abiding  opportunity  for  usefulness  in  thus  min- 
istering to  the  spiritual  life  of  all  those  to  whose  minds 
it  may  come. 

The  illustration  also  serves  to  indicate  how  a  certain 
unity  of  purpose  and  of  method  runs  through  all  things. 
The  parables  of  our  Lord  were  more  than  felicitous  pic- 
tures. They  declared  the  fact  that  to  him  all  life  was 
full  of  spiritual  suggestion.  The  whole  universe  visible 
and  invisible  was  woven  by  a  single  hand.  God  the  Father 
Almighty  was  Maker  of  heaven  and  of  earth.  The  illus- 
tration portraying  things  visible  which  are  temporal  but 
suggesting  the  invisible  values  which  are  lasting,  proclaims 


130  THE  ART  OF  PREACHING 

this  unity  which  extends  through  all  created  things.  Use 
illustrations  therefore  freely  and  aright — it  will  help  your 
people  to  feel  that  the  whole  world  is  alive  with  God. 
There  was  sound  philosophy  as  well  as  good  poetry  in  what 
Milton  said, 

"What  if  earth 
Be  but  the  shadow  of  heaven,  and  things  therein 
Each  to  the  other  like,  more  than  on  earth  is  thought." 

How  can  we  best  employ  the  illustration  ?  It  is  wise 
not  to  overwork  it.  There  ought  to  be  in  all  of  our  preach- 
ing more  reading  matter  than  pictures — a  great  deal  more. 
It  is  never  necessary  to  illustrate  the  obvious.  When  a 
truth  has  been  clearly  stated  and  can  be  clearly  seen  at  a 
glance,  the  people  are  impatient  if  we  begin  to  draw  fur- 
ther diagrams  of  it.  Get  on  with  your  sermon  if  your 
meaning  at  a  given  point  has  already  been  thoroughly  ap- 
prehended. 

It  is  foolish  to  use  repeated  illustrations  of  the  same 
truth.  When  a  man  says,  "As  sure  as  the  sun  will  rise, 
as  sure  as  the  tides  will  ebb  and  flow,  as  sure  as  spring 
will  follow  winter,"  and  so  on  for  a  series  of  six  or  seven 
similar  illustrations  of  inevitable  sequence,  the  minds  of 
the  people  rebel.  One  such  illustration  will  suffice.  If  the 
thing  is  as  sure  as  sunrise,  that  is  sure  enough, — we  can 
take  the  rest  of  the  guarantees  for  granted. 

It  is  foolish  to  introduce  an  illustration  just  for  the 
sake  of  its  beauty,  its  novelty,  or  its  cleverness.  There 
are  preachers  who,  once  possessed  of  an  interesting  story 
or  a  clever  illustration,  become  impatient  to  use  it.    They 


LIGHTER  ELEMENTS  OF  THE  SERMON      131 

can  hardly  wait  for  Sunday  to  come.  They  will  employ 
that  illustration  in  the  next  sermon  preached  even  though 
it  has  to  be  dragged  in  by  the  hair  of  its  head.  They 
had  best  salt  it  down  in  their  notebooks  until  it  is  needed 
and  can  be  used  in  some  connection  where  it  will  be  en- 
tirely apt. 

The  illustration  cannot  be  allowed  to  usurp  the  place 
of  serious  thought.  Stories  are  easy  to  get,  easy  to  remem- 
ber, and  easy  to  tell.  There  are  even  ready  made  "Cyclo- 
pedias of  Illustration"  where  one  will  find  cut  and  dried 
illustrations  for  every  conceivable  truth  in  the  universe. 
You  can  find  there  in  alphabetical  order  illustrations  taken 
from  the  lives  of  all  the  men  of  the  Bible  from  Adam  to 
Zebedee  and  applicable  to  all  the  truths  under  heaven  from 
avarice  to  the  zone  system  in  transportation.  These 
books  are  a  delusion  and  a  snare.  If  any  young  man  has 
been  foolish  enough  to  purchase  one,  he  had  best  burn  it 
forthwith.  The  steady  use  of  such  "first  aids  to  the  lazy" 
will  weaken  and  impoverish  the  mind. 

The  public  speaker  had  best  not  dawdle  over  his  illus- 
tration. Let  him  study  the  impressionist  school  of  paint- 
ing! The  impressionist  paints  a  picture  where  there  are 
trees,  with  birds  sitting  upon  the  branches,  and  cows  in 
the  field  beyond.  The  painter  paints  real  trees,  real  birds, 
and  real  cows.  He  does  not,  however,  paint  in  all  the 
leaves  on  the  trees  nor  all  the  feathers  on  the  birds,  nor 
all  the  hairs  on  the  back  of  the  cow.  When  one  looks  at 
his  picture  near  at  hand  he  sees  nothing  of  all  this.  There 
is  a  clear  and  distinct  impression  of  all  these  forms  of 
life,  but  not  of  all  the  insignificant  details.  Strike  out 
your  illustration  in  a  free,  bold  way,  so  that  without  dally- 


132  THE  ART  OF  PREACHINQ 

ing  over  the  minutiae  the  people  will  instantly  see  your 
meaning. 

The  illustration  should  fit — the  closer  the  hotter.  It 
may  he  impossible  to  have  the  analogy  go  on  all  fours, 
but  it  should  get  at  least  three  legs  firmly  on  the  ground. 
If  the  illustration  is  false  or  misleading;  if  it  is  far- 
fetched so  that  the  connection  is  not  readily  recognized; 
if  it  brings  up  any  unworthy  associations,  then  it  may 
well  be  cast  out. 

It  is  wise  to  leave  the  illustration  while  it  still  suggests 
something  more  than  has  been  actually  brought  out. 
Vagueness  hath  its  virtues  no  less  than  clearness.  Al- 
most any  woman  adds  something  to  her  beauty  by  wear- 
ing a  veil.  The  veil  must  not  be  too  thick — if  she  wore 
a  blanket  before  her  face  her  beauty  would  be  entirely 
obscured.  When  you  offer  an  audience  a  picture  do  not 
insist  upon  furnishing  them  an  itemized  statement  of  all 
that  it  contains — let  them  use  their  own  eyes  a  bit.  When 
you  offer  them  an  illustration,  leave  it  with  them  while 
there  is  still  some  juice  left  in  it  which  you  have  not 
pressed  out. 

Where  shall  we  get  our  illustrations?  Anywhere! 
Everywhere!  In  heaven  above  and  on  the  earth  beneath 
and  in  the  waters  under  the  earth!  Get  all  you  can  out 
of  the  Bible.  There  is  value  in  illustrating  ISTew  Testa- 
ment truths  by  Old  Testament  incidents.  It  is  effective 
to  illustrate  the  Heavenly  Father's  yearning  love  over  his 
sinful  children  by  the  heartbreak  of  David  the  King  over 
the  death  of  Absalom,  the  handsome  but  dissolute  young 
prince.  The  Bible  is  the  greatest  pieturebook  in  print. 
The  preacher  may  well  "search  the  Scriptures"  for  illus- 


LIGHTER  ELEMENTS  OF  THE  SERMON      133 

trations  as  well  as  for  tLo  promises  of  eternal  life.  He 
will  never  exhaust  their  rich  content  and  the  illustrations 
from  that  source  will  have  all  the  more  value  because  of 
the  sacred  associations  which  cluster  around  them. 

Watch  for  useful  illustrations  in  your  general  reading. 
History  and  biography  are  the  best  of  sources.  "Lives  of 
all  great  men  remind  us"  of  situations  which  furnish  us 
all  manner  of  good  illustrations.  The  poets  who  dream 
for  us  are  forever  offering  us  moving  pictures  of  spiritual 
truth.  The  great  novelists,  Dickens  and  Thackeray,  An- 
thony Trollope  and  George  Eliot  are  replete  with  useful 
material  for  illustration. 

Watch  for  illustrations  where  your  Master  did !  When 
he  saw  a  woman  putting  leaven  in  the  meal,  or  farmers 
sowing  their  seed  in  all  sorts  of  soil,  or  fishermen  drawing 
in  their  nets  containing  all  manner  of  fish,  or  shepherds 
moving  out  upon  the  mountains  to  recover  the  strays,  or 
a  father  breaking  his  heart  over  a  wayward  son  in  some 
far  country,  he  recognized  everywhere  the  presence  of 
energies  and  activities  which  had  their  counterparts  in 
the  life  of  his  kingdom.  Country  life  and  city  life,  the 
streets  and  the  shops,  the  stores  and  the  mills,  the  play- 
grounds of  the  children  and  the  recreations  of  the  more 
mature,  are  all  full  of  suggestive  pictures  of  moral  truth. 

You  will  watch  for  illustrations  in  current  literature. 
The  popular  stories  as  well  as  the  more  serious  articles 
in  the  magazines  will  furnish  you  an  abundance  of  ma- 
terial for  the  illustration  of  your  truth.  If  you  use  oc- 
casionally illustrations  from  the  magazines  or  from  stories 
which  your  hearers  have  already  been  reading,  the  natural 
interest  to  be  found  in  such  material  will  be  increased. 


134  THE  ART  OF  PREACHING 

The  people  will  feel  a  certain  joy  that  you  too  have  been 
traversing  the  very  fields  where  their  minds  have  walked. 

You  can  afford  to  range  widely  in  making  your  choices. 
The  man  of  good  judgment  will  avoid  seeking  all  of  his 
illustrations  from  one  or  two  fields  of  human  interest. 
If  he  cultivates  a  single  patch  of  ground  in  his  quest  for 
similes  his  people  may  soon  come  to  feel  that  all  the  po- 
tatoes in  that  field  have  already  been  dug.  He  is  making 
his  appeal  to  all  sorts  and  conditions  of  men.  He  must 
therefore  consult  their  varying  interests  in  order  to  give 
every  man  his  meat  in  due  season  and  in  the  form  most 
appealing  to  his  habit  of  mind. 

How  effective  was  the  Master's  illustration  when  he 
was  pointing  out  the  folly  of  attaching  one's  supreme  in- 
terest to  perishable  things !  "Take  heed  and  beware  of 
covetousness"  he  said  to  a  pair  of  brothers  who  had  fallen 
out  over  the  division  of  an  inheritance.  "Take  heed — 
a  man's  life  consisteth  not  in  the  abundance  of  the  things 
which  he  possesseth."  Then  he  drew  a  picture  of  that 
man  whose  major  interest  lay  in  building  big  bams  and 
in  filling  them  with  things;  and  then  in  building  still 
bigger  barns  and  in  filling  them  with  things.  When  this 
man  had  gotten  his  barns  all  up  and  had  filled  them  to 
the  eaves  with  things  enough  to  last  him  for  a  thousand 
years  he  said:  "Soul,  take  thine  ease.  Thou  hast  goods 
laid  up  for  many  years.  Eat,  drink  and  be  merry."  .He 
was  talking  to  his  stomach  under  the  impression  that  he 
was  addressing  his  soul !  The  soul  does  not  live  on  things 
which  can  be  stored  up  in  barns  or  in  banks.  Then  God 
said  to  him:  "Thou  fool!  This  night  shall  thy  soul  be 
required  of  thee!     Then  whose  shall  those  things  be!" 


LIGHTER  ELEMENTS  OF  THE  SERMON      135 

"So  is  every  one,"  the  Master  added  dryly,  "who  layeth 
up  treasure  for  himself  and  is  not  rich  toward  God." 
How  clear-cut  it  all  is  and  how  telling  a?  an  illustration  of 
the  utter  futility  of  the  whole  philosophy  of  materialism 
as  a  program  of  life ! 

The  second  of  the  lighter  elements  in  the  sermon  which 
I  would  discuss  is  that  of  humor.  There  are  many  serious- 
minded  men  who  might  insist  that  humor  has  no  rightful 
place  whatever  in  the  work  of  preaching.  We  would  all 
agree  that  the  clerical  jester  in  the  pulpit  is  out  of  place. 
The  man  who  makes  puns  on  Scripture  or  cracks  jokes 
about  sacred  things,  disgraces  his  calling  and  coarsens  the 
taste  of  the  people  to  whom  he  speaks.  We  do  not  want 
clowns  in  the  pulpit.  The  clown  in  the  circus  with  his 
pointed  cap  and  spotted  clothes  may  easily  be  a  means  of 
grace  affording  amusement,  relief  and  relaxation  from  the 
strain  of  living  ever  in  the  somber  mood.  We  do  not 
care,  however,  to  see  the  clown  in  the  pulpit,  with  a 
pointed  nose  and  a  spotted  tongue. 

But  God  saw  fit  to  make  men  with  the  capacity  for 
laughter  as  well  as  for  worship.  We  can  smile  upon  oc- 
casion as  easily  as  we  can  pray  upon  other  occasions.  God 
has  given  us  all  of  these  faculties,  the  talent  for  logical  ar- 
gument, the  power  of  cogent  statement,  the  ability  to  give 
fresh  interpretation  to  old  truths,  the  taste  for  fine  liter- 
ary form,  the  sympathetic  quality  of  voice,  the  capacity 
for  moral  indignation,  to  be  used  in  making  the  truth 
effective.  He  has  also  given  to  all  men,  who  are  not  sadly 
defective,  that  saving  sense  of  humor  which  employed 
with  reverence  and  with  taste  may  add  immeasurably  to 
ministerial  success.     The  man  who  cannot  look  into  a 


136  THE  ART  OF  PREACHING 

mirror  occasionally  and  laugh  heartily  at  that  which  he 
sees  reflected  there,  must  be  listed  with  the  "defec- 
tives." 

r  The  humor  must  naturally  be  used  sparingly,  ever  so 
sparingly,  but  where  it  is  used  with  discretion  and  in 
proper  proportions  it  serves  to  enlist  and  to  hold  attention, 
where  the  interest  of  the  people  has  begun  to  lag.  It  calls 
them  back  to  think  again  with  more  avidity  upon  the 
serious  ideas  which  are  being  presented. 
;  The  employment  of  delicate  humor  occasionally  will 
rest  and  refresh  an  audience.  The  smile  which  plays 
across  a  congregation  of  people  enables  their  minds  to 
unbend  from  the  strain  of  serious  and  sustained  mental 
effort.  They  come  back  to  the  more  vital  interests  with 
strength  renewed. 

The  employment  of  humor  will  also  serve  to  impress 
upon  the  mind  some  great  principle  by  an  unexpected 
turn  or  by  some  statement  of  a  familiar  idea  which  has 
in  it  an  element  of  surprise.  Where  all  men  say  the  same 
thing  in  exactly  the  same  way  it  is  almost  as  though  no 
one  had  said  anything.  Where  the  truth  is  clothed  at 
times  in  unusual  forms  and  with  a  touch  of  humor,  the 
meaning  stands  revealed  the  more  clearly,  and  it  will  be 
more  readily  retained  by  the  average  mind. 

We  have  abundant  scriptural  warrant  for  the  employ- 
ment of  humor.  The  Bible  is  not  a  joke  book — it-  was 
written  for  the  most  part  by  serious-minded  men  and  with 
a  serious  purpose.  But  it  is  not  by  any  means  uniformly 
somber — there  is  an  abundance  of  delicate  humor  within 
its  pages.  The  story  of  the  crafty  men  of  Gideon  who 
imposed  upon  the  Israelites  with  their  array  of  old  clothes 


LIGHTER  ELEMENTS  OF  THE  SERMON      137 

and  moldy  bread;  the  parable  of  Jotham  regarding  the 
trees  in  making  their  choice  of  a  king,  putting  the  crown 
upon  a  worthless  bramble  because  of  the  unwillingness  of 
the  more  respectable  members  of  society,  the  olive  tree, 
the  fig  tree  and  the  vine,  to  hold  public  office ;  the  conster- 
nation of  the  rude  Philistines  when  they  had  captured  the 
Ark  of  the  Covenant,  and  were  led  to  feel  as  if  they  had 
actually  captured  Yahweh  himself  to  their  undoing — all 
these  familiar  narratives  with  their  fine  vein  of  humor 
were  undoubtedly  meant  to  be  taken  as  expressive  of  the 
sense  of  fun,  as  well  as  the  embodiment  of  wholesome 
lessons. 

The  story  of  Samson  found  its  place  on  the  pages  of 
Holy  Writ  mainly  perhaps  because  of  the  humor  it  con- 
tains. Samson  was  a  great  joker.  He  carried  off  the 
gates  of  a  city  as  a  kind  of  Hallowe'en  prank !  He  burned 
up  the  wheat  fields  of  the  Philistines  by  setting  loose  in. 
them  foxes  with  fire-brands  tied  to  their  tails  in  order  to 
get  the  laugh  on  his  enemies.  He  joked  with  and  deceived 
his  wife  whose  clumsy  Philistine  mind  was  unequal  to 
his  own  more  nimble  wits!  When  he  propounded  his 
riddle,  "Out  of  the  eater  came  forth  meat,  out  of  the 
strong  came  forth  sweetness,"  making  a  wager  with  the 
Philistines  that  they  could  not  guess  it,  we  read  that  the 
answer  was  finally  wheedled  out  of  him  by  his  Philistine 
wife.  She  then  promptly  gave  it  to  her  own  people.  When 
they  brought  the  correct  answer  to  Samson,  thus  winning 
the  wager,  he  replied  rather  coarsely,  "If  you  had  not 
plowed  with  my  heifer,  ye  had  not  guessed  my  riddle." 
This  is  all  rather  low  grad©  ore  from  the  mine  of  humor, 
but  it  indicates  the  feeling  of  those  earlier  men  touching 


138  THE  ART  OF  PREACHING 

the  place  of  this  element  in  the  work  of  religious  instruc- 
tion. 

The  story  of  Elijah  mocking  the  priests  of  Baal  is  full 
of  a  grim  and  bitter  humor.  "Cry  louder,"  he  said,  there 
on  the  slopes  of  Carmel  when  the  trial  of  the  rival  faiths 
was  being  made.  "Cry  louder!"  They  were  already 
yelling  at  the  top  of  their  lungs  and  they  had  been  yelling 
from  morning  until  midday.  "He  is  a  god,"  the  prophet 
added  in  sarcastic  vein,  "but  either  he  is  talking,  or  he 
has  gone  out  hunting,  or  he  is  on  a  journey,  or  perad ven- 
ture he  is  asleep,  and  must  be  wakened  up."  This  is  all 
meant  to  be  pitiless  irony.  Elijah  knew  perfectly  well 
there  was  no  such  god  as  Baal,  that  there  was  none  to  hear 
nor  to  answer.  He  was  turning  the  laugh  in  contemptu- 
ous fashion  upon  the  futile  efforts  of  a  false  faith. 

When  we  come  to  the  Gospels,  we  find  that  Jesus  em- 
ployed humor  in  a  delicate  but  most  effective  way.  He 
was  once  reproached  by  the  Pharisees  because  he  and  his 
disciples  ate  with  publicans  and  sinners.  Hear  his  re- 
ply !  "I  am  not  come  to  call  the  righteous,"  he  said,  "but 
sinners  to  repentance."  "They  that  are  whole  need  not 
a  physician,  but  they  that  are  sick."  It  was  a  delicious  bit 
of  irony.  He  enjoyed  the  making  of  this  reference  to 
those  narrow-minded,  uncharitable  Pharisees  who  were 
anything  but  "whole."  He  held  them  up  to  ridicule  by 
speaking  of  them  as  "righteous"  when  they  were  all  "sin- 
ners" in  sore  need  of  "repentance."  The  very  men  who 
were  criticizing  him  for  mingling  with  the  morally  needy 
were  the- ones  who  had  the  greatest  need  of  "the  physician" 
for  their  own  recovery. 

How  delicious  is  the  humor  in  that  familiar  parable  of 


LIGHTER  ELEMENTS  OF  THE  SERMON      139 

the  Pharisee  and  the  Publican !  "The  Pharisee  stood  and 
prayed  thus  with  himself,  ^God,  I  thank  thee  that  I  am 
not  as  other  men  are,  unjust,  extortioners,  adulterers,  or 
even  as  this  Publican.  I  fast  twice  in  the  week;  I  give 
tithes  of  all  that  I  possess,'  "  His  prayer  was  indeed 
wholly  "with  himself."  The  entire  transaction  was  car- 
ried on  within  the  limits  of  his  own  little  soul.  The 
prayer  never  rose  even  to  the  ceiling — it  went  no  higher 
than  the  top  of  his  own  swollen  head.  What  art  there  was 
in  picturing  his  moral  complacency  touching  his  super- 
iority to  "extortioners  and  adulterers!"  Thank  God,  I 
am  not  as  other  men  are !  What  other  men  ?  Extor- 
tioners, adulterers — the  lowest,  vilest  men  who  could  be 
named!  It  must  have  been  gratifying  for  this  conceited 
prig  to  feel  that  in  the  spiritual  race  set  before  us  he  had 
not  been  entirely  eclipsed  by  such  rascals !  How  effective 
is  this  whole  picture  in  "taking  off"  the  self-righteousness 
of  those  who  in  supercilious  fashion  entirely  overlook  their 
own  faults! 

We  shall  not  understand  the  reply  of  Jesus  to  that  Syro- 
phenician  woman  unless  we  have  in  mind  His  sense  of 
humor.  When  the  woman  appealed  to  the  Master  to  heal 
her  child,  He  answered,  "It  is  not  meet  to  take  the  chil- 
dren's bread,  and  cast  it  to  the  dogs."  His  words  sound 
almost  brutal  if  we  take  them  merely  at  their  face  value. 
But  when  we  picture  His  face  with  a  smile  upon  it  as  He 
used  the  ordinary  term  applied  by  contemptuous  Jews  to 
those  of  foreign  birth,  indicating  His  own  disagreement 
with  their  habit  of  mind.  His  meaning  is  instantly  ap- 
parent. The  woman  saw  and  understood.  She  answered 
at  once,  "Yea,  Lord:  yet  the  lap  dogs  do  eat  the  crumbs 


140  THE  ART  OF  PREACHING 

which  fall  from  their  master's  table."  Jesus  recognizing 
the  fact  that  she  had  understood  and  that  her  faith  over- 
topped all  racial  and  sectarian  barriers,  pronounced  upon 
her  His  gracious  benediction,  "O  woman,  great  is  thy 
faith!  Be  it  done  unto  thee  even  as  thou  wilt."  And 
her  daughter  was  healed  in  that  hour. 

There  is  a  vein  of  delightful  humor  in  the  passage 
where  Jesus  speaks  of  the  Pharisees  as  "sounding  trum- 
pets" before  them  when  they  "do  their  alms."  When  they 
send  a  basket  of  provisions  or  half  a  ton  of  coal  to  some 
poor  family,  he  represents  them  as  hiring  a  band  to  go 
along.  He  also  caricatures  the  ostentatious  men  who  pray 
at  the  street  corners  "to  be  seen  of  men."  "Verily,  I  sa'/ 
unto  you,  they  have  their  reward!"  They  pray  to  be  seen 
of  men,  and  they  are  seen  of  men.  They  get  what  they 
prayed  for  on  the  spot.  There  is  nothing  more  coming  to 
them. 

We  have  abundant  scriptural  precedent  therefore  for 
the  use  of  delicate  humor  of  a  high  character.  The  quaint 
and  unexpected  turns  in  the  presentation  of  truth  have 
genuine  value.  We  find  it  employed  by  some  of  the  great- 
est preachers  in  the  history  of  the  Church.  Even  Phillips 
Brooks,  restrained  though  he  was  by  the  stately  conven- 
tions of  his  own  communion,  would  now  and  then  cause  a 
smile  to  sweep  over  his  congregation  like  a  cool  breeze 
on  a  summer  day.  Dean  Hodges  of  the  Episcopal  Church 
used  these  unexpected  turns  habitually,  and  they  contrib- 
uted greatly  to  his  usefulness  in  the  service  of  the  church. 
The  dry  Scotch  humor  introduced  now  and  then  by  George 
A.  Gordon,  a  preacher  of  high  intellectual  standards  and 
with  a  firm  philosophical  grasp  of  eternal  principles,  has 


LIGHTER  ELEMENTS  OF  THE  SERMON      141 

added  always  to  his  attractiveness  in  the  pulpit  of  the 
Old  South  Church,  Boston.  Henry  Ward  Beecher  in  the 
days  of  his  power  in  Plymouth  Church,  Brooklyn,  intro- 
duced humor  into  his  sermons  repeatedly.  It  was  the 
judgment  of  some  of  his  more  serious-minded  people  that 
now  and  then  he  used  too  much  of  it.  He  used  to  say 
that  if  the  people  had  just  laughed  it  would  be  much  more 
easy  to  bring  tears  to  their  eyes  by  the  effective  appeal 
which  followed.  Charles  H.  Spurgeon,  with  all  his  ear- 
nest, evangelistic  fervor,  found  place  for  the  element  of 
humor  in  those  heartfelt  appeals  which  reached  out 
through  all  the  English-speaking  world. 

It  is  not  well  for  a  minister  to  go  out  of  his  way  even 
six  inches  in  order  to  make  a  joke.  But  when  some  un- 
expected turn  comes  naturally  in  his  treatment  of  some 
great  truth,  he  is  unwise  to  turn  aside  in  order  to  avoid 
it.  Let  him  study  the  great  masters  of  delicate  humor  in 
the  literature  of  the  race !  Let  him  use  if  he  will  those 
lighter  statements  which  bring  a  sense  of  surprise.  Let 
him  employ  "the  finest  of  the  wheat"  in  this  matter  of 
humor  just  in  passing,  with  a  touch  and  go,  never  waiting 
for  a  laugh,  and  he  will  find  that  by  this  method  he  has 
added  greatly  to  his  power  of  spiritual  appeal.  The  peo- 
ple whose  minds  are  quickened  and  refreshed  may  not 
laugh  with  their  mouths — they  will  laugh  with  their  eyes 
and  they  will  be  all  the  more  ready  to  recognize  and  to 
accept  the  full  value  of  the  solid  truth  which  is  thus  pro- 
claimed. 

The  wise,  guarded,  and  tasteful  employment  of  humor 
now  and  then  will  aid  in  keeping  alive  in  the  minds  of 
your  hearers  a  full  sense  of  the  fact  that  you  too  are  a 


142  THE  ART  OF  PREACHING 

man.  The  uniformly  solemn  and  excruciatingly  pious 
parson  who  proclaims  the  fact  that  he  has  no  sense  of 
humor  is  hopeless.  His  people  are  likely  to  look  upon 
him  as  our  great-grandparents  looked  upon  certain  drastic 
spring  medicines — not  pleasant  to  take^,  hut  in  some  mys- 
terious way  ''good  for  the  system." 

The  Lord  meant  you  to  have  feet  and  hands,  arms  and 
legs,  a  head  and  a  heart  as  all  your  fellows  have.  He 
meant  also  that  along  with  those  more  sedate  faculties 
which  are  imperative  in  any  useful  ministry  you  too 
ishould  have  and  evince  a  saving  sense  of  humor.  It  will 
help  to  carry  you  through  many  a  troubled  situation  in 
your  parish  experiences.  Cherish  it  and  cultivate  it.  And 
when  the  way  is  open  for  a  hit  of  humor  to  make  your 
presentation  of  the  truth  more  complete,  more  interesting, 
more  effective,  allow  it  to  have  its  day  in  court.  For 
humor  also  is  one  of  "the  good  gifts  of  our  God." 

The  third  element  of  this  sort  which  I  would  name 
comes  from  the  use  of  the  imagination  in  preaching.  You 
may  feel,  some  of  you,  that  this  sounds  like  small  potatoes 
and  few  in  a  hill.  There  was  a  time  when  I  too  would 
have  said  so  without  a  moment's  hesitation.  But  that  was 
thirty  years  ago  and  more.  We  learn  some  things  by 
hard  knocks  as  we  grow  older.  The  good  sermon  is  not  all 
roast  beef  medium  and  mashed  potato.  Solid  argument 
walks  on  the  ground  until  imagination  gives  it  wings  to 
reach  the  high  places  of  moral  appeal. 

It  was  Henry  Ward  Beecher,  who  knew  quite  a  little 
about  this  august  business  of  preaching  the  gospel,  who 
remarked  upon  a  certain  occasion,  "I  regard  the  imagina- 
tion as  the  most  important  of  all  the  factors  which  go  to 


LIGHTER  ELEMENTS  OF  THE  SERMON      143 

make  the  preacher."  He  was  not  comparing  it,  naturally, 
with  Christian  character  or  with  the  ability  to  read  and 
write  or  with  a  sufficient  amount  of  vocal  strength  to  en- 
able one  to  speak  out  loud.  He  took  all  those  things  for 
granted — they  were  necessities  the  use  of  which  went  with- 
out saying.  But  given  these  plain  requisites  without 
which  we  could  not  have  any  preaching  at  all  worthy  of 
the  name,  he  made  bold  to  utter  that  strong  word  on 
behalf  of  the  imagination. 

It  has  much  to  do  with  the  exercise  of  faith.  The  Re- 
vised Version  defines  faith  as  the  act  of  "giving  substance 
to  things  hoped  for."  Whether  this  process  shall  be  mainly 
a  mere  intellectual  exercise  or  the  upward,  outward,  God- 
ward  movement  of  a  man's  whole  nature  will  depend 
largely  upon  the  use  he  makes  of  his  moral  imagination. 
Here  are  certain  claims  not  upon  the  face  of  them  absurd 
or  impossible  but  not  susceptible  of  immediate  scientific 
demonstration !  I  accept  them  as  furnishing  a  good  work- 
ing hypothesis  for  human  life.  By  an  act  of  faith  I  give 
substance  to  them  as  things  hoped  for.  Then  I  begin  to 
act  accordingly.  By  the  hard  tests  of  experience  all  those 
claims,  God,  prayer,  duty,  redemption,  the  sense  of  end- 
less life  already  begun,  become  more  and  more  real  to  me. 
And  faith  was  the  high  mood  which  originally  gave  sub- 
stance to  them  as  "things  hoped  for"  and  answered  back 
in  terms  of  trust  and  obedience,  of  aspiration  and  high 
resolve. 

By  that  wholesome  use  of  the  imagination  which  en- 
ables him  to  see  the  Unseen  and  to  hear  the  Unuttered, 
the  preacher  can  give  such  genuine  and  living  substance 
to  those  "hoped-for  things"  as  to  cause  them  to  exercise! 


144  THE  ART  OF  PREACHING 

their  pull  and  lift  upon  the  hearts  and  wills  of  all  those 
to  whom  he  speaks.  He  makes  the  absent  present.  He 
takes  that  which  is  historic  and  causes  it  to  live  and  move 
and  transact  spiritual  business  there  in  those  lives  before 
him.  He  takes  those  things  which  are  as  yet  only  ideally 
possible  and  causes  people  to  behold  them  as  actually 
capable  of  being  wrought  out  in  terms  of  solid  achieve- 
ment. 

At  the  heart  of  every  splendid  performance  there  is  a 
vision,  a  dream,  which  has  not  yet  come  true.  The  artist 
sees  an  angel  standing  in  the  block  of  marble  and  his 
hands  reach  eagerly  for  mallet  and  chisel  that  he  may 
bring  it  out.  The  teacher  sees  the  hidden  possibilities  in 
that  roomful  of  restless  urchins  and  all  her  power  comes 
at  once  to  "attention"  for  the  task  of  developing,  matur- 
ing and  enriching  wholesome  personality  in  all  those 
young  candidates  for  an  existence  worthy  to  be  called 
human.  The  wise  physician  sees  the  improved  health  of 
an  entire  community,  through  better  methods  of  sanita- 
tion and  more  skillful  hygiene,  and  his  human  interest 
joins  with  his  professional  skill  in  moving  toward  that 
worthy  end.  The  merchant  or  the  manufacturer  has  a 
vision  of  his  business  as  a  great  social  utility,  a  means  of 
bringing  together  the  resources  of  earth  and  the  needs  of 
society,  a  place  for  the  cultivation  and  the  expression  of 
intelligent  good  will — and  that  vision  lifts  him  above  .the 
danger  of  becoming  sordid  in  the  pursuit  of  money.  It 
sets  him  in  paths  of  economic  honor  and  of  moral  advance. 

Now  the  ability  to  see  in  advance  any  one  of  those 
things  as  a  thing  hoped  for  and  the  further  ability  to 
make  it  live  as  an  actual  fact  in  the  mind's  qye  of  another 


LIGHTER  ELEMENTS  OF  THE  SERMON      145 

so  that  he  too  will  see  it  and  act  upon  it,  comes  by  the 
exercise  of  moral  imagination.  Where  there  is  no  such 
vision,  all  the  worthier  elements  of  human  life  perish. 
Society  goes  to  seed  in  the  barren  futility  of  its  petty  pur- 
suits. Man  cannot  live  at  all  by  bread  alone.  Man  lives 
by  all  those  great  words  which  proceed  out  of  the  mouth 
of  God — faith,  hope,  love,  courage,  aspiration,  high  re- 
solve— by  these  man  lives ! 

There  was  a  minister  once  with  a  dry,  prosy,  literal 
mind  who  read  these  exquisite  lines  from  Shakespeare : 

"And  this  our  life,  exempt  from  public  haunt, 
Finds  tongues  in  trees,  books  in  running  brooks, 
Sermons  in  stones  and  good  in  everything." 

He  read  all  that  in  a  newspaper  and  in  his  pedantic  way 
he  proceeded  to  comment  upon  it  to  the  wife  of  his  bosom. 
"Here  is  an  amusing  thing,"  he  said.  "It  is  evidently  a 
misprint.  N^o  one  ever  saw  a  sermon  in  a  stone  and  a  book 
in  a  running  brook  would  be  all  wet  and  useless.  What 
the  writer  meant  to  say  apparently  was  'Sermons  in  books 
and  stones  in  running  brooks.'  "  Alas !  poor  man !  What 
a  dull  time  the  patient  people  must  have  had  who  "sat 
under"  his  preaching,  devoid  as  he  was  of  imagination ! 

When  you  undertake  to  "preach  Christ,"  as  we  say, 
you  do  not  set  out  to  give  a  dry  catalogue  of  all  the  dates 
and  facts  in  his  earthly  life  such  as  might  be  found  in 
"Who's  Who."  You  do  not  merely  recite  in  mechanical 
fashion,  as  some  phonograph  might,  the  precise  words  and 
sentences  which  fell  from  his  lips.  You  do  not  undertake 
to  unfold  "The  Plan  of  Salvation"  discoverable  in  His 


146  THE  ART  OF  PREACHING 

Incarnation,  His  Crucifixion  and  His  Resurrection,  with 
all  the  mighty  theological  truths  involved,  as  might  be 
done  in  some  Westminster  Confession  of  Faith.  You 
might  do  all  this  with  all  the  painstaking  fidelity  imag- 
inable and  yet  fail  utterly  in  your  announced  purpose. 
When  you  "preach  Christ"  you  seek  to  have  Him  live  and 
move  and  have  His  redemptive  being,  as  He  was,  as  He 
is  now,  in  the  fullness  of  His  power,  before  the  eyes  and 
through  the  minds  and  in  the  hearts  of  those  waiting 
people. 

It  was  William  Roscoe  Thayer  of  Harvard  who  in  writ- 
ing of  "History — Quick  or  Dead"  insisted  that  "Four- 
fifths  of  the  history  written  up  to  the  present  time  has 
been  dead.  .  .  .  The  worship  of  Fact,  which  must  not 
be  confounded  with  Truth,  does  not  lead  us  far.  To 
know  that  Columbus  discovered  America  on  October  12th, 
1492,  or  that  the  Declaration  of  Independence  was  made 
on  July  4th,  1776,  or  that  Napoleon  lost  the  battle  of 
Waterloo  on  June  18th,  1815,  is  interesting;  but  unless 
these  statements  are  reenforced  by  much  matter  of  a  dif- 
ferent kind  they  are  hardly  more  important  for  us  than  it 
would  be  to  know  the  number  of  leaves  on  a  tree.  And  this 
is  true  though  the  facts  be  indefinitely  multiplied. 

"I  have  read,  for  instance,  an  account  of  the  American 
Revolution  in  which  the  imcontroverted  facts  followed 
each  other  in  as  faultlessly  correct  a  sequence  as  the  tele- 
graph poles  which  carry  the  wires  over  eight  hundred  and 
fifty  miles  of  the  desert  of  Gobi.  The  paramount  interest 
in  this  case  is  not  the  number  of  poles  but  the  purport  of 

the  telegrams  flashed  along  the  wires The  meaning 

of  the  sequent  or  scattered  events  in  any  historical  move- 


LIGHTER  ELEMENTS  OF  THE  SERMON      147 

ment,  be  it  of  long  duration  or  merely  a  fleeting  episode — 
that  alone  can  have  significance  for  us."  And  it  is  the 
office  of  a  well  ordered  imagination  to  people  these  "Val- 
leys of  Dead  Facts"  with  moving  interests  that  have  life. 

The  bare  events  even  of  that  matchless  life  which  has 
come  to  be  the  light  of  the  world  have  little  power  to 
change  or  to  move  the  hearts  of  men  until  they  are  inter- 
preted and  related  to  the  immediate  interests  of  these 
lives  of  ours.  It  is  for  us,  every  man  in  his  own  order 
and  according  to  the  grace  given  him,  to  repeat  and 
realize  in  our  own  experiences  the  majestic  truths  sug- 
gested by  the  Incarnation,  the  Transfiguration,  the  Cruci- 
fixion, the  Resurrection.  We  are  set  not  only  to  revere 
but  according  to  the  measure  of  our  ability  to  reproduce 
the  life  which  was  in  Him.  And  the  minds  of  men  can 
only  be  inspired  to  these  high  endeavors  as  the  sacred, 
significant  events  which  lie  in  the  remote  past  are  made 
to  live  before  their  eyes. 

How  vitally  does  the  power  of  imagination  enter  into 
all  that  high  endeavor!  I  do  not  mean  anything  capri- 
cious or  fantastic.  It  is  easily  possible  for  a  man  to  allow 
his  imagination  to  run  away  with  him  as  any  sort  of 
faculty  may  run  wild  when  it  is  not  held  in  leash  by  in- 
telligence and  conscience.  It  may  land  him  in  all  man- 
ner of  absurdity.  I  would  not  have  you  suffer  from  in- 
tellectual delirium  tremens,  seeing  a  lot  of  things  which 
are  not  really  there.  I  mean  that  wise  exercise  of  a  sane 
imagination  which  deals  with  unseen  realities  in  such  a 
way  as  to  make  them  real  indeed.  The  materialist  some- 
times tells  us  in  his  dry,  cold  way  that  he  deals  only  in 
"facts."    As  if  a  thought,  an  impulse,  a  hope,  a  resolve. 


148  THE  ART  OF  PREACHING 

a  prayer,  were  not  as  much  of  a  "fact"  as  a  brick  or  a 
plant !  As  if  Jesus  Christ  were  not  at  this  moment  the 
sublimest  "fact"  ever  known  upon  this  common  earth! 

We  look  not  solely  at  the  things  which  are  seen.  They 
have  their  place  and  their  value  which  of  necessity  must 
he  limited  because  they  are  temporal.  We  look  mainly 
at  the  things  which  are  not  seen  because  they  are  eternal.. 
You  can  go  out  and  saw  wood  or  break  rock  in  the  street, 
you  can  wash  the  automobile  or  build  a  board  fence  with- 
out using  your  imagination.  Whether  or  not  you  can 
read  fairy  stories  or  the  stirring  narratives  of  the  Old 
Testament  or  the  words  which  fell  from  the  lips  of  Christ 
and  know  what  it  is  all  about  and  cause  others  to  know, 
will  depend  in  large  measure  upon  your  power  of  imagina- 
tion. You  cannot  by  any  means  do  it  well  unless  you  are 
accustomed  to  look  steadily  at  those  unseen  things  which 
are  eternal  and  really  see  something. 

It  is  this  element  which  differentiates  literature  from 
the  reading  matter  to  be  found  in  the  encyclopedia. 
The  Britannica  has  facts,  literature  has  vision.  Read 
Baedeker  on  Mt.  Blanc!  It  will  give  you  the  height  of 
the  mountain,  the  extent  of  the  snow  fields,  the  length 
and  the  age  of  the  glaciers,  the  distance  in  kilometers 
from  Chamounix  to  the  summit.  Then  read  Coleridge's 
"Ode  to  Mt.  Blanc."  Baedeker  has  the  facts,  Coleridge 
has  vision. 

Read  Baedeker  on  Belgium  including  the  detailed 
description  of  the  field  and  of  the  Battle  of  Waterloo. 
Then  read  Victor  Hugo's  description  of  the  Battle  of 
Waterloo  in  his  "Les  Miserables"  or  the  third  canto  of 
Byron's  "Childe  Harold": 


LIGHTER  ELEMENTS  OF  THE  SERMON      149 

"There  was  a  sound  of  revelry  by  night 
And  Belgium's  capital  had  gathered  then 
Her  beauty  and  her  chivalry,  and  bright 
The  lamps  shone  o'er  fair  women  and  brave  men." 

Baedeker  has  the  facts,  the  poets  have  vision.  And  with- 
out the  exercise  of  imagination  which  underlies  the  power 
of  vision  the  dry  facts  would  be  for  us  all  but  useless. 

How  the  Bible  is  filled  with  this  from  start  to  finish! 
It  was  a  poet  who  looked  back  to  the  period  of  the  Crea- 
tion and  said,  "The  morning  stars  sang  together  and  all 
the  sons  of  God  shouted  for  joy."  He  saw  the  planets 
in  their  courses  finding  such  happiness  in  their  serene 
and  august  fidelity  to  the  will  of  their  Maker  that  they 
set  their  satisfaction  to  music  and  sang  it  as  a  hymn  of 
praise  from  the  rising  of  the  sun  even  unto  the  going 
down  of  the  same.  He>saw  "the  sons  of  God,"  the  beings 
of  moral  capacity  made  in  the  divine  likeness,  finding 
such  satisfaction  in  their  high  estate  that  they  actually 
became  noisy  and  boisterous  about  it.  They  "shouted  for 
joy."  "We  have  here,  as  any  one  can  see,  no  dry,  prose 
statement  of  hard  fact — it  is  poetry  and  its  main  appeal 
is  to  the  imagination. 

Why  does  the  man  who  lives  in  Jersey  City,  on  a  nar- 
row street,  in  an  ugly  tenement,  engaged  in  the  monotony 
of  some  repellent  toil,  his  whole  life  dull  and  drab — why 
does  he  drink  until  he  is  drunk  ?  He  does  it  because  the 
bottle  of  whisky  is  the  shortest  road  out  of  Jersey  City 
which  he  knows  anything  about.  When  he  is  thoroughly, 
and  joyously  drunk,  he  too  sees  visions  and  dreams  dreams 
after  his  kind.  He  feels  strong  and  rich,  successful  and 
happy.     (I  am  told  that  it  is  so — I  am  not  speaking  here 


150  THE  ART  OF  PREACHING 

from  personal  experience.)  He  may  know,  poor  chap, 
that  there  will  come  a  sad  awakening  the  morning  after 
and  a  dark  brown  taste  in  his  mouth  and  in  his  mind,  but 
for  an  hour  or  two  at  least  he  has  gotten  out  of  Jersey 
City. 

Now  what  he  attempts  so  unworthily,  we  are  helping 
men  to  achieve  in  ways  which  will  not  leave  that  dark 
brown  taste  in  their  mouths  or  in  their  souls.  This  is 
precisely  what  St.  Paul  had  in  mind  when  he  said  to 
those  Ephesians,  many  of  them  living  also  in  Jersey 
City! — "Be  not  drunken  with  wine  wherein  is  excess  but 
be  filled  with  the  Spirit."  He  would  provide  them  with 
that  better  sort  of  exhilaration  which  would  lift  them 
out  of  the  sordidness  of  their  ordinary  mode  of  life  into 
that  sense  of  life  which  is  life  indeed. 

In  all  the  cities  of  earth,  Ephesus,  Jersey  City,  'New 
Haven,  even  Boston,  there  are  multitudes  of  dull  and 
dreary  men  and  women,  hungry  for  just  that  more  radiant 
type  of  experience.  You  are  sent  there  to  lift  them 
to  that  upper  level  where  they  too  under  wise  guidance 
will  see  those  visions  and  dream  those  dreams  which  in 
God's  good  time  are  all  to  come  true. 

How  all  the  great  poets  used  this  power  of  imagina- 
tion !  Here  was  Robert  Burns  watching  a  farmer  whose 
plowshare  had  just  turned  up  and  wrecked  the  nest  of 
some  field  mice!  He  saw  there  suggested  in  that  little 
scene,  as  the  frightened  creatures  scurried  to  and  fro  in 
futile  fashion,  the  whole  tragedy  of  human  existence. 

"I'm  truly  sorry  man's  dominion 
Has  broken  Nature's  social  union 


LIGHTER  ELEMENTS  OF  THE  SERMON      151 

And  justifies  that  ill  opinion 

Wliich  makes  thee  startle 
At  me,  thy  poor  earth-born  companion. 

And  fellow  mortal. 

"That  wee  bit  heap  of  weeds  and  stubble 
Has  cost  thee  many  a  weary  nibble; 
Now  thou'rt  turned  out  for  all  thy  trouble. 


"But,  mousie,  thou  art  not  alone 
In  proving  foresight  may  be  vain; 
The  best  laid  plans  o'  mice  and  men 

Gang  aft  agley. 
And  leave  us  nought  but  grief  and  pain 

For  promised  joy. 

"Still,  thou  art  blessed  compared  with  me: 
The  present  only  toucheth  thee : 
But,  Oh,  I  backward  cast  my  eye 

On  prospects  drear 
And  forward,  though  I  cannot  see, 

I  guess  and  fear." 

Burns  stood  there  looking  into  that  furrow,  witnessing 
the  consternation  of  those  helpless  mice  and  meditating 
upon  the  tragedy  of  his  own  life  and  of  many  another 
life,  as  compared  with  those  lighter  ills  which  fell  upon 
these  tiny  creatures  of  the  field.  It  all  passed  in  review 
before  his  mind  because  he  was  a  poet  with  the  power  of 
moral  imagination.     He  had  eyes  to  see,  and  he  saw. 

How  wonderful  was  the  exercise  of  this  power  in  the 
life  of  the  Son  of  Man!  He  had  sent  forth  "the  other 
seventy,"  the  larger  company  of  faithful  disciples.     He 


152  THE  ART  OF  PREACHING 

had  charged  them  to  heal  the  sick  and  to  make  known  to 
men  the  sublime  fact  that  the  Kingdom  of  God  had  come 
nigh  unto  them.  When  the  seventy  returned  from  their 
errands  of  service  they  made  a  glowing  report  upon  the 
success  of  their  efforts.  They  had  been  healing  diseases 
and  casting  out  devils.  Their  hearts  were  filled  to  the 
brim  with  such  joy  as  they  had  never  known  before.  For 
them  the  best  wine  had  been  kept  until  now. 

Quick  as  a  flash  came  the  words  of  Christ.  "I  saw 
Satan  falling  like  lightning  from  heaven."  And  in  that 
hour  he  exulted  in  spirit  and  said,  "I  thank  Thee,  O 
Father,  Lord  of  heaven  and  earth." 

In  those  glowing  words  Jesus  was  not  giving  them  the 
prose  facts  of  a  moral  survey.  He  was  not  framing  a 
careful  induction  from  the  data  they  had  brought  him. 
He  was  using  his  imagination  to  picture  in  swift,  dra- 
matic fashion  the  ultimate  triumph  of  the  redemptive 
forces  of  earth  and  sky  over  all  our  human  ills.  He  had 
seen  the  earnest  and  the  promise  of  all  this  in  the  faithful 
kindly  service  of  those  seventy  people  whose  very  names 
have  faded  from  the  history  of  the  race  which  they  were 
helping  to  redeem. 

If  you  would  learn  to  preach,  so  that  by  the  power  of 
your  appeal  the  minds  and  hearts  of  your  people  will  be 
made  to  mount  up  with  wings  like  eagles  claiming  all  the 
goods  things  which  God  has  in  store  for  them,  then  learn 
how  to  exercise  this  power  of  moral  imagination  as  fur- 
nishing you  another  essential  factor  in  any  effective 
sermon. 

This  age  of  ours  ought  to  believe  not  less  but  rather 
more  in  the  Unseen.     Our  attention  has  been  directed 


LIGHTER  ELEMENTS  OF  THE  SERMON      153 

with  peculiar  force  to  things  invisible.  Here  is  the  X-ray 
piercing  through  coatsleeve  and  firm  flesh,  through  thick 
book  and  barndoor  if  need  be,  revealing  plainly  the  con- 
dition of  the  bones  in  the  forearm,  and  all  the  hidden 
articulations  of  wrist  and  hand — and  incidentally  telling 
us  of  more  things  in  certain  forms  of  light  than  our 
philosophy  had  dreamed  of!  Here  is  wireless  telegraphy 
enabling  the  ships  to  whisper  to  each  other  across  wide 
stretches  of  open  sea  and  indicating  that  this  simple  air 
we  breathe  has  in  it  potencies  hitherto  unsuspected  which 
can  be  made  the  useful  servants  of  intelligence!  Here  is 
radium  so  dynamic  in  the  outgoings  of  its  power  as  to 
bring  to  our  minds  the  constant  sense  of  something  almost 
superhuman,  a  tiny  bit  of  it  scarcely  visible  to  the  eye  of 
man  holding  within  itself  energy  enough  to  keep  a  clock 
ticking  for  a  hundred  years!  In  all  these  and  in  many 
another  direction  the  unseen  has  come  to  have  a  fresh 
hold  upon  the  interest  of  mankind. 

Now  if  you  can  only  picture  the  glorious  truths  sug- 
gested by  all  this  through  a  competent  use  of  your  spiritual 
imagination  you  can  secure  a  response  of  faith  and  of 
action  from  the  men  of  our  day  absolutely  unequaled  in 
those  ages  of  credulity  when  simpler  minds  pictured  the 
air  as  peopled  with  friendly  spirits  or  with  threatening 
hobgoblins.  The  very  fact  that  widening  intelligence  has 
again  and  again  rebuked  the  narrow  and  hasty  dogmatism 
which  was  ready  to  assert  that  now  the  returns  were  all 
in,  will  aid  you  in  making  the  minds  of  those  to  whom 
you  speak,  more  responsive  to  the  claims  of  faith. 

The  tangible,  wholesome  fruits  of  the  spirit  are  "love, 
joy,   peace,   patience,   gentleness,   goodness,   faithfulness, 


154  THE  ART  OF  PREACHING 

mildness,  and  self-control."  The  great  main  business  of 
the  tree  of  life,  which  grew  on  this  side  the  river  and 
on  that,  was  to  bring  forth  an  abundance  of  these  whole- 
some fruits  and  to  do  it  every  month  in  the  year.  There 
was  to  be  no  unproductive  winter  of  moral  discontent  in 
that  garden  of  the  Lord.  But  incidental  to  its  main  pur- 
pose, thrown  in  as  you  might  say  for  good  measure,  "the 
leaves  of  the  tree"  were  to  be  "for  the  healing  of  the  na- 
tions." These  lighter  expressions  of  the  tree's  inner  life, 
— products  which  would  not  weigh  out  bulk  for  bulk  with 
apples  and  pears,  products  which  would  not  begin  to  make 
an  equal  showing  in  solid  food  values — were  also  to  have 
their  place  of  honor  and  of  usefulness  in  the  great  re- 
demptive process. 

See  to  it  that  your  sermons  have  in  them  an  abundant 
supply  of  that  bread  which  cometh  down  from  heaven  to 
give  life  unto  the  world,  bread  which  a  man  may  eat  and 
not  die !  Then  let  the  leaves  of  your  sermon,  the  lighter 
elements  of  illustration,  of  humor  and  of  things  imagined, 
be  likewise  set  forth  for  the  healing  and  the  help,  the  com- 
fort and  the  cheer  of  those  who  hear  you. 


VI 

THE    DELIVERY    OF    THE    SERMON 

HERE  is  the  final  test!  Here  you  win  or  lose! 
All  that  has  gone  before  helps  or  hinders,  as  the 
case  may  be,  but  the  proof  of  the  pudding  is  the 
eating.  Here  in  the  delivery  of  your  sermon  the  nourish- 
ment which  you  have  brought  for  a  hungry  congregation 
is  either  eaten  with  relish,  satisfaction  and  resultant 
strength,  or  it  is  left  on  the  plate  as  a  bit  of  cold  victuals, 
useless  and  repellent.  Take  heed  therefore  how  you 
deliver ! 

What  do  we  mean  by  "delivery  ?"  What  does  it  mean 
"to  deliver"  a  telegram  or  an  order  of  groceries  ?  It 
means  to  get  the  thing  to  be  delivered  into  the  possession 
of  the  person  for  whom  it  was  intended.  There  would 
be  no  delivery  if  the  boy  threw  the  groceries  into  the  back 
alley,  or  tossed  the  telegram  over  the  fence.  In  that  case 
they  would  not  reach  the  person  for  whom  they  were  in- 
'  tended.  Merely  getting  them  out  of  his  hands  is  not  de- 
livering them.  Many  sermons  are  never  "delivered"  at 
all.  The  minister  gets  his  words  out ;  he  gets  the  sermon 
off  of  his  mind  and  out  of  his  system,  but  he  does  not 
lodge  it  in  the  minds  and  the  hearts  of  the  people  to  whom 
it  is  addressed.  He  has  not  delivered  it  in  any  true 
sense.  In  many  cases  there  is  only  a  partial  delivery,  the 
delivery  of  a  small  percentage  of  the  real  content  of  the 
sermon.     Delivery  is  an  intricate  and  a  difficult  process. 

155 


156  THE  ART  OF  PREACHING 

We  shall  need  to  study  all  the  conditions  involved  if  we 
are  to  meet  them  in  any  competent  way. 

The  physical  conditions  in  the  church  itself  affect  the 
delivery  of  any  sermon.  The  architects  seein  to  have  for- 
gotten oftentimes  that  Protestant  churches  are  built  pri- 
marily to  speak  in,  to  sing  in,  and  to  hear  in.  The  Gothic 
church,  with  its  high  arches  and  long  aisles,  with  its 
stately,  obstructing  columns  and  its  defective  acoustics, 
may  have  been  adapted  to  a  spectacular  service  which  was 
meant  to  be  seen  rather  than  heard.  The  Gothic  church 
as  a  rule  is  not  well  adapted  to  the  work  of  preaching. 

The  ideal  auditorium  for  speaking  would  be  shaped 
something  like  a  horseshoe,  with  the  minister  located 
midway  between  the  two  corks  of  the  shoe.  This  might 
not  be  impressive  architecturally,  but  it  would  lend  itself 
admirably  to  the  purposes  of  public  address.  When 
Charles  Dickens  made  his  famous  lecture  tour  in  the 
United  States  he  reported  that  Plymouth  Church,  Brook- 
lyn, which  was  built  in  about  that  form  under  the  direc- 
tion of  Henry  Ward  Beecher,  offered  him  the  best  facili- 
ties for  public  speaking  to  be  found  anywhere  in  this 
country.  Plymouth  Church  is  not  beautiful  nor  impres- 
sive either  outside  or  inside,  but  one  can  stand  in  its 
pulpit  speaking  to  a  large  congregation  in  a  conversational 
tone  and  be  heard.  Bad  architecture  has  destroyed  the 
spiritual  effectiveness  of  many  a  good  sermon.  The  actors 
in  the  theaters  would  not  submit  to  the  handicap  which 
is  frequently  imposed  upon  an  unhappy  minister  of  the 
Gospel. 

The  ideal  pulpit  is  one  where  the  preacher  is  not  bar- 
ricaded behind  heavy  wooden  breastworks  which  allow  the 


THE  DELIVERY  OF  THE  SERMON  157 

people  to  see  nothing  of  him  except  what  may  appear 
above  the  top  button  of  his  waistcoat.  This  pulpit  where 
I  am  standing  now  is  an  abomination.  I  should  be  almost 
ready  to  give  twO  hours  of  extra  credits  to  any  adven- 
turous divinity  student  who  might  steal  in  some  dark 
night  and  carry  it  off  as  Samson  did  the  gates  of  Gaza. 
Let  the  whole  man  stand  out  and  speak!  The  man's 
attitude  and  bearing  in  the  declaring  of  some  vital  truth 
may  become  as  eloquent  as  the  words  themselves. 

The  habit  of  standing  before  a  congregation  where  the 
speaker  can  be  seen  from  head  to  foot  will  also  prevent 
the  minister  from  falling  into  those  lounging  slovenly 
habits  which  are  so  easily  hidden  away  behind  the  holy 
barricade.  The  voice  from  the  Unseen  said  to  the  prophet 
of  old,  "Stand  upon  thy  feet,  son  of  Man,  and  I  will  speak 
unto  thee."  "It  is  to  men  standing  on  their  feet,  all  their 
senses  alert,  all  their  powers  active,  that  God  speaks." 
In  my  judgment  the  ideal  pulpit  contains  nothing  larger 
than  a  reading  desk,  with  sufficient  room  upon  it  to  lay 
a  Bible,  a  hymn  book,  a  few  notes,  and  the  minister's 
watch.  Then  if  he  can  stand  out  free  and  clear  by  the 
side  of  this  desk  and  declare  the  evangel,  he  has  the  best 
sort  of  an  opportunity  to  win  the  attention  and  to  move 
the  hearts  of  the  congregation  thus  brought  before  him 
with  an  unimpeded  view. 

The  pulpit  had  best  be  located  as  near  as  possible  to  Q 
the  front  pews.  If  there  is  a  wide  open  space  of  twenty 
or  thirty  feet  between  the  pulpit  and  the  first  row  of 
people,  a  kind  of  Nevada  desert  without  even  sage  brush 
and  Jack  rabbits  in  it  to  liven  it  up,  this  empty  interval 
serves  as  a  non-conductor  of  spiritual  power.     It  serves 


158  THE  ART  OF  PREACHING 

to  insulate  the  preacher  from  those  to  whose  needs  he 
would  minister.  You  lose  a  full  third  of  yourself  before 
you  get  across  to  that  other  shore  where  the  people  are. 
When  a  man  is  declaring  his  affection  for  a  certain  young 
woman  and  asking  her  to  marry  him,  he  does  not  get  off 
twenty  or  thirty  feet  away  and  call  it  out  to  her  in  loud 
tones.  As  a  matter  of  fact,  I  have  never  been  personally 
present  when  that  thing  was  being  done  but  once  in  my 
life — on  that  occasion  I  remember  distinctly  that  the  man 
was  not  speaking  at  a  long  remove  from  the  object  of  his 
desires.  You  are  wooing  those  people  to  a  Christian  life 
and  to  more  active  Christian  service — ^you  can  do  it  better 
if  you  are  near  enough  almost  to  lay  your  hand  upon  the 
heads  of  those  in  the  front  pews. 

The  presence  of  an  abundance  of  fresh  air  contributes 
steadily  to  the  effective  delivery  of  a  sermon.  The  church 
sextons  as  a  rule  are  strongly  conservative  at  this  point. 
In  the  last  church  I  served  I  had  a  most  obliging  excep- 
tion in  the  person  of  Charles  S.  Lewis,  a  man  whom  I 
shall  always  hold  in  affectionate  remembrance  as  an  hon- 
ored friend.  He  was  a  lover  of  fresh  air  and  of  all  other 
good  things.  But  many  church  sextons  do  not  want  to 
change  the  old  customs  or  the  old  theology  or  the  old  air. 
They  like  to  keep  it  undisturbed,  as  though  to  preserve 
"an  odor  of  sanctity"  which  seems  to  them  altogether  pre- 
cious. In  such  churches  "the  garment  of  praise"  fails  to 
replace  "the  spirit  of  heaviness"  for  lack  of  fresh  air. 

There  are  certain  flowers  with  a  dull,  heavy  fragrance 
— hyacinths,  tuberoses,  Chinese  lilies  and  the  like — 
placed  upon  the  altar  occasionally  by  kind-hearted  women 
who  know  not  what  they  do,  which  serve  to  create  an 


THE  DELIVERY  OF  THE  SERMON  159 

atmosphere  wliere  people  fall  asleep  more  readily  than 
they  respond  to  spiritual  appeal.  The  "heavy  feeling" 
at  funerals  is  not  always  due  solely  to  personal  grief  on 
the  part  of  the  friends  who  have  assembled — much  of  it 
is  due  to  the  "floral  offerings."  Lift  up  your  heads,  O  ye 
gates,  and  open  the  windows  to  let  in  God's  fresh  air 
of  which  there  will  always  be  enough  and  to  spare! 

The  church  should  be  sufficiently  light  for  the  minister  < 
to  be  able  to  look  into  the  faces  of  the  people,  and  to 
know  something  as  to  what  is  going  on  in  their  minds. 
It  should  be  light  enough  for  the  people  to  follow  the 
changing  expression  in  his  own  face.  The  "dim  religious 
light"  may  have  a  certain  value  in  promoting  the  feeling 
of  reverence  and  the  sense  of  something  mysterious,  but 
the  clearer  light  offers  better  opportunity  for  compelling 
address.  The  true  sermon  is  meant  to  say  to  all  the 
cloudy  confusion  in  which  the  minds  and  hearts  of  many 
are  wont  to  move,  "Let  there  be  light!" 

It  is  a  distinct  advantage  not  to  have  a  broad  aisle  ^ 
immediately  in  front  of  the  pulpit  stretching  away  in 
empty,  unresponsive  fashion  to  the  front  door  of  the 
church.  That  broad  aisle  is  also  objectionable  because  it 
is  calculated  to  produce  a  certain  sense  of  social  distinc- 
tion and  separation  which  is  out  of  place  in  the  church 
of  Christ.  The  people  who  sit  on  "the  broad  aisle"  are 
likely  to  be  regarded  as  the  big  bugs  of  the  church,  while 
those  on  the  side  aisles  and  in  the  galleries  are  relegated 
to  the  small  insect  class.  It  is  much  more  inspiring  to 
speak  directly  to  columns  of  human  faces  than  to  speak 
into  a  long  vista  of  well-worn  church  carpet. 

These  are  all  little  things  but  they  affect  for  good  or 


/ 


160  THE  ART  OF  PREACHINa 

for  ill  the  delivery  of  the  sermon.  When  the  surgeon  is 
about  to  perform  a  major  operation,  he  insists  upon  hav- 
ing all  the  physical  conditions  as  perfect  as  they  can  be 
made.  His  own  white  antiseptic  dress  and  that  of  the 
nurse,  the  tiled  room  which  reduces  to  a  minimum  the 
danger  of  infection,  the  sterilized  instruments,  sponges 
and  bandages  to  be  employed, — all  these  have  to  do  with 
the  success  of  the  operation.  You  are  undertaking  some- 
thing much  more  difficult  and  delicate  in  every  way — you 
cannot  afford  to  neglect  any  of  those  conditions  which  will 
aid  or  retard  you  in  accomplishing  the  desired  spiritual 
result. 

Your  own  physical  condition  will  enter  decisively  into 
the  quality  of  your  delivery.  It  is  altogether  wise  for  a 
preacher  who  is  responsible  for  two  sermons  on  Sunday 
to  refrain  from  all  hard  work  on  Saturday  afternoon  and 
evening.  The  man  who  habitually  postpones  his  prepara- 
tion until  that  stage  of  the  game  and  then  in  the  spirit 
of  a  desperate,  eleventh-hour  repentance  strives  to  atone 
for  his  earlier  neglect  by  working  furiously  far  into  the 
night  on  Saturday  evening  is  an  outrageous  sinner.  He 
is  sinning  with  a  high  hand  and  an  outstretched  arm 
against  himself  and  against  his  people  and  against  his 
Lord. 

The  minister  can  well  afford  to  play  with  his  children 
on  Saturday  evening,  or  to  play  games  with  his  wife,  or 
to  indulge  himself  in  light  and  pleasant  reading  which 
imposes  no  particular  strain  upon  his  intellectual  facul- 
ties. He  had  best  sleep  soundly  for  eight  or  nine  hours 
on  Saturday  night.  He  might  well  sleep  vicariously  on 
behalf  of  the  congregation  he  is  to  meet  the  next  day.    If 


THE  DELIVERY  OF  THE  SERMON  161 

he  sleeps  well  on  Saturday  night  the  people  are  much  less 
likely  to  sleep  while  he  is  preaching  to  them  on  Sunday 
morning. 

The  minister  who  is  to  preach  a  second  sermon  at  an 
evening  service  may  well  go  to  bed  on  Sunday  afternoon. 
It  has  been  my  custom  for  the  last  twenty-five  years  when- 
ever I  am  to  preach  twice  to  take  off  my  clothes  after 
dinner  on  Sunday  and  spend  the  afternoon  in  bed,  as  if 
I  had  been  put  there  for  the  night.  I  do  not  always 
sleep,  but  I  relax.  Then  if  I  take  a  sponge  bath  and  a 
rub-down  about  six  o'clock,  I  find  myself  as  fresh  and 
as  keen  for  the  evening  service  as  I  was  for  the  morning. 

The  minister  may  well  order  his  eating  with  reference 
to  the  delivery  of  his  sermon.  He  must  of  necessity  avoid 
the  eating  of  anything  heavy  or  indigestible  on  Saturday 
night.  Much  of  the  religious  apathy  in  country  places  in 
the  Commonwealth  of  Massachusetts  has  been  attributed 
to  the  prevalent  habit  of  serving  baked  beans  for  supper 
on  Saturday  night.  There  are  homes  where  the  beans  are 
served  up  again  for  Sunday  breakfast.  It  is  a  well-nigh 
impossible  task  for  a  preacher  filled  to  the  throat  with 
baked  beans  to  preach  to  a  congregation  similarly  filled 
and  accomplish  the  full  and  appropriate  measure  of 
spiritual  result. 

The  minister  should  eat  just  as  little  as  possible  on 
Sunday  morning  so  that  he  keeps  his  interior  economy 
from  being  uneasy  and  clamorous.  It  does  not  require 
a  great  deal  of  food  to  quiet  the  demands  which  are  likely 
to  arise  from  that  quarter  in  a  man  who  is  intent  on 
preaching  a  good  sermon.  I  thought  at  one  time  that  I 
needed  to  eat  a  very  substantial  breakfast  on  Sunday  in 


162  THE  ART  OF  PREACHING 

order  to  "get  up  my  strength"  for  the  work  of  the  day. 
When  the  time  came  for  the  delivery  of  the  sermon  I  then 
had  two  tasks  on  my  hands,  the  digesting  of  all  the  beef- 
steak and  fried  potatoes,  and  the  preaching  of  a  sermon. 
It  frequently  turned  out  that  the  blood  which  should  have 
been  in  my  head  was  in  my  stomach.  It  is  well-nigh  im- 
possible for  the  Holy  Spirit  to  take  a  man  full  of  fried 
sausage,  hot  biscuits,  and  other  solid  substances,  and  use 
him  as  a  "chosen  vessel"  to  make  other  people  hunger  and 
thirst  after  righteousness.  The  most  powerful  electric 
current  cannot  pass  through  certain  non-conductors.  You 
can  make  your  body  an  effective  insulation  against  Divine 
help. 

Personally  I  am  opposed  to  the  use  of  all  kinds  of 
stimulants.  The  Eighteenth  Amendment  has  practically 
removed  alcoholic  stimulants  from  our  reach,  even  if  there 
Avere  no  conscientious  scruples  among  ministers  against 
their  use.  I  would  also  lay  under  ban  the  habitual  use 
of  tea  and  coffee.  They  are  drugs — caffeine  is  a  powerful 
drug.  It  may  be  advisable  to  use  it  as  a  drug  when  a 
man  has  suffered  all  night  Saturday  night  from  toothache, 
but  the  habitual  use  of  such  a  stimulant  is  a  disadvantage. 
When  a  man  has  taken  two  or  three  cups  of  strong  coffee 
he  feels  good  oftentimes  when  he  has  no  right  to  feel  good. 
He  is  constantly  teaching  his  nerves  to  lie  to  him.  The 
man  who  lives  without  stimulants  knows  always  exactly 
where  he  is. 

The  toiler  who  works  mainly  with  his  hands  and  in  the 
open  air  can  do  many  things  with  impunity  which  would 
prove  perilous  for  you.  The  man  who  does  the  greater 
part  of  his  work  indoors  seated  at  a  desk,  living  during 


THE  DELIVERY  OF  THE  SERMON  163 

all  of  his  waking  hours  under  more  or  less  of  a  nervous 
and  mental  strain,  had  best  let  stimulants  alone.  If  you 
drink  strong  coffee  habitually  and  in  generous  quantity, 
you  may  see  the  time  when  insomnia  will  come  like  a  thief 
in  the  night  and  steal  away  your  sleep.  You  may  lie 
awake  all  night,  as  many  a  nerve-racked  minister  ha?5 
done,  hearing  the  clock  strike  all  the  hours  and  all  the 
half  hours  until  the  day  dawns  and  the  shadows  do  not 
flee  away.  You  may  do  the  same  thing  the  next  night 
and  the  next.  And  if  that  sorry  experience  falls  to  your 
lot,  you  will  not  on  the  third  day  feel  like  a  bridegroom 
coming  out  of  his  chamber,  rejoicing  as  a  strong  man  to 
run  a  race.  In  the  long  run,  the  nerves  which  have  not 
been  tampered  with  by  the  use  of  any  kind  of  stimulants 
or  narcotics  will  show  themselves  most  reliable  in  sus- 
tained intellectual  effort  and  in  public  address. 

The  main  tool  to  be  used  in  the  delivery  of  the  sermon  o 
is  your  voice.  See  to  it  that  you  keep  your  tools  in  good 
order  as  workmen  approved  unto  God  who  need  not  be 
ashamed !  The  minister  is  under  moral  obligation  so  to 
train  and  so  to  use  his  throat  and  other  vocal  organs  as 
to  avoid  all  sore  throat,  colds  and  hoarseness,  which  always 
diminish  where  they  do  not  actually  destroy  effective  de- 
livery. You  ckn  afford  to  dash  the  coldest  water  available 
on  your  throat  and  chest  every  morning  for  three  hundred 
and  sixty-five  days  in  the  year.  This  heroic  treatment 
will  serve  to  stimulate  the  circulation  in  that  part  of  your 
body  and  to  temper  your  throat  until  it  becomes,  like  your 
face,  not  susceptible  to  injury  by  sudden  changes  of  tem- 
perature. The  man  who  is  to  speak  will  succeed  better 
if  he  wears  a  loose  coUar  which  allows  the  free  circulation 


164  THE  ART  OF  PREACHING 

of  air  around  his  throat  and  the  freest  sort  of  circulation 
of  blood  from  the  body  to  the  brain. 

The  public  speaker  may  well  avoid  the  drinking  of 
water  while  he  is  speaking,  ligature  has  provided  the 
mouth  and  throat  with  glands  which  secrete  a  lubricant 
far  superior  to  anything  which  can  be  supplied  from  glass 
and  pitcher.  If  a  man  will  use  his  vocal  organs  naturally 
and  rationally  he  can  leave  the  entire  process  of  lubrica- 
tion to  the  efficient  care  of  those  glands.  If,  on  the  other 
hand,  he  forms  the  habit  of  drinking  water  during  the 
delivery  of  his  sermon,  they  will  begin  to  loaf  on  their 
job  so  that  presently  he  will  have  to  pour  in  something 
at  frequent  intervals  to  prime  the  pump. 

The  man  who  is  to  deliver  a  sermon  will  need  to  submit 
himself  to  all  the  necessary  discipline  for  the  development 
of  a  strong,  resonant,  flexible,  and  pleasant  voice.  He 
will  have  to  practice  the  exercises  prescribed  by  some 
teacher  of  public  expression  who  knows  his  business  until 
his  voice  shall  become  the  responsive  and  reliable  agent 
of  his  mind  and  heart  in  conveying  thought  and  feeling 
to  the  listening  congregation.  He  will  have  to  study  and 
to  obey  all  the  searching  exacting  laws  which  control  these 
precious  forms  of  energy  employed  in  delivering  sermons. 
And  blessed  is  the  man  whose  delight  is  in  the  law  of 
the  Lord,  meditating  thereon  by  day  and  by  night. 

It  is  a  clear  advantage  for  a  man  to  cultivate  the  habit 
of  using  a  pleasant  tone  of  voice  always.  If  his  ordinary 
mode  of  speech  is  harsh,  husky,  rasping  or  shrill,  it  will 
be  almost  impossible  for  him  to  display  that  quality  of 
tone  suitable  for  the  conveyance  of  a  message  of  spiritual 
help.    "If  a  man's  words  say  one  thing  and  his  voice  saya 


THE  DELIVERY  OF  THE  SERMON  165 

another,  he  is  working  at  cross  purposes."  If  his  lan- 
guage invites  and  his  tones  repel,  the  people  will  not  know 
whether  they  are  going  or  coming.  The  inevitable  con- 
fusion will  go  far  toward  robbing  his  work  of  its  power. 
Every  public  speaker  might  well  talk  for  five  or  ten  min- 
utes in  his  usual  style  into  a  graphophone,  which  will  re- 
produce for  him  with  amazing  fidelity  those  inflections  and 
infelicities  of  tone  production  which  many  a  waiting  con- 
gregation has  found  a  burden  grievous  to  be  borne.  He 
will  there  behold  his  natural  self  in  a  glass  and  knowing 
what  manner  of  man  he  is  vocally,  he  may  be  moved  to 
go  his  way  and  strive  for  a  better  quality  of  voice. 

The  psychology  of  delivery  is  also  to  be  considered. 
Other  things  being  equal,  the  man  will  best  deliver  his 
sermon  where  his  mind  is  at  ease  when  he  begins.  How- 
ever anxious  he  may  be  touching  the  effect  of  that  par- 
ticular message,  it  is  a  distinct  gain  if  he  is  able  to  utter 
it  as  if  it  were  no  particular  trouble  to  him.  The  ill- 
trained  undisciplined  singer  in  some  cheap  vaudeville 
show  will  display  such  an  amount  of  conscious  effort,  of 
physical  contortion  and  of  facial  grimace  as  to  render  her 
performance  painful  to  behold  as  well  as  an  offense  to  the 
ear.  Patti  and  Caruso  sang  as  the  birds  sing,  with  an 
ease  and  a  joy  well-nigh  perfect.  They  had  paid  the  full 
price  of  that  apparent  spontaneity  by  years  of  hard  study 
and  discipline. 

The  preacher  will  be  aided  in  his  delivery  by  seeking 
to  develop  also  the  right  mood  in  the  congregation  just 
before  the  sermon  is  to  begin.  It  is  bad  psychology  to 
have  the  taking  of  the  collection,  or  a  long  list  of  confus- 
ing notices,  or  the  singing  of  a  choir  number,  which  may 


166  THE  ART  OF  PREACHING 

frequently  prove  to  be  a  misfit,  come  immediately  before 
the  sermon.  The  best  thing  that  the  people  in  a  congre- 
gation can  do  to  prepare  their  minds  for  the  reception  of 
a  sermon  is  to  sing  together  in  hearty  fashion  some  suit- 
able hymn  which  shall  prepare  the  way  for  the  message 
of  the  hour. 

Hear  these  wise  words  from  one  who  combines  the  love 
of  beauty  with  the  love  of  God.  In  his  "Art  and  Re- 
ligion," Von  Ogden  Vogt  says,  "A  sermon  should  begin 
interestingly  but  the  heavier  burden  of  impression  should 
come  with  the  climax  and  at  the  close.  Therefore  some 
more  common  and  ordinary  exercise  such  as  a  hymn 
should  immediately  precede  the  sermon.  If  the  order  of 
worship  has  developed  an  imaginative  outlook  and  an 
emotional  power  by  itself,  the  cycle  of  its  psychological 
course  should  be  brought  to  a  certain  conclusion  before 
the  beginning  of  the  sermon.  There  should  be  something 
to  ground  the  attention  after  the  first  emotional  uplift, 
something  to  bring  back  the  whole  situation,  so  to  speak, 
to  'neutral  clutch.'  An  artistic  solo  does  not  do  this.  It 
does  too  much.  Something  else  is  required  which  will 
enable  the  sermon  to  begin  lower  down  as  it  were  and 
then  lead  to  a  fresh  ascent  of  the  emotions." 

The  preacher  does  well  to  begin  his  sermon  as  if  he 
expected  every  one  to  listen  from  the  very  first  word.  He 
may  well  wait  a  moment  for  the  people  to  become  quiet 
before  he  announces  his  text.  We  read  of  One  who  "went 
into  the  synagogue  as  his  custom  was  and  stood  up  to 
read.  .  .  .  And  the  eyes  of  all  them  that  were  in  the 
synagogue  were  fastened  on  him."  Then  in  the  hush  of 
that  complete   attention   "he  began  to  say  unto  them" 


THE  DELIVERY  OF  THE  SERMON  167 

words  which  they  never  forgot  as  long  as  they  lived.  The 
preacher's  very  look  and  hearing,  if  he  knows  what  he  is 
about,  will  help  to  produce  the  sense  that  something  of 
significance  is  about  to  occur.  The  well-bred  horse  knows 
instantly  whether  the  man  who  has  just  mounted  him  is 
or  is  not  accustomed  to  riding.  Even  so  the  congregation 
feels  instinctively  the  presence  of  a  man  who  understands 
his  business.  When  you  enter  upon  the  delivery  of  your 
sermon,  have  your  eyes  upon  the  people  instead  of  fussing 
over  your  hymn  book  or  with  the  notes  or  the  notices  upon 
the  desk.  If  your  eyes  are  vipon  them,  the  chances  are 
that  their  eyes  and  their  minds  will  be  upon  you. 

The  delivery  of  the  sermon  had  best  begin  in  an  easy 
conversational  tone.  If  you  start  in  immediately  after 
the  style  of  Spartacus  addressing  the  gladiators  or  of 
Webster  replying  to  Hayne,  it  may  put  upon  your  hearers 
a  strain  so  sudden  and  so  severe  as  to  disconcert  them. 
It  will  also  make  it  difiicult  for  you  to  increase  steadily 
the  power  and  effectiveness  of  your  delivery  in  the  further 
development  of  your  theme.  Begin  on  the  level  even 
though  you  are  proposing  to  carry  the  whole  congregation 
up  into  the  seventh  heaven  of  spiritual  ecstasy  when  the 
right  moment  comes.  When  I  begin  my  sermon,  espe- 
cially in  some  strange  church  where  I  may  never  have 
preached  before,  I  usually  fix  my  eye  on  some  one  in  the 
rear  of  the  church,  and  make  my  first  remark  to  him.  If 
I  can  gain  and  hold  his  attention  from  the  very  start  I 
may  be  fairly  sure  that  I  am  winning  a  sympathetic  hear- 
ing from  all  the  rest.  If  the  opening  sentences  of  the 
sermon  are  not  uttered  too  rapidly  or  in  too  loud  a  tone 
of  voice  this  will  give  time  for  your  vocal  organs  to  adjust 


168  THE  ART  OF  PREACHING 

themselves  to  the  task  of  delivery.  The  tone  of  dignified 
conversation  furnishes  the  staple  method  for  effective  de- 
livery. It  wears  better  than  any  other  style  of  speech. 
The  men  who  shout  and  roar  in  the  pulpit  are  not  the 
men  who  speak  to  the  human  heart  the  words  of  eternal 
life. 

The  great  parliamentary  speakers  in  England — Herbert 
H.  Asquith,  Arthur  J.  Balfour,  David  Lloyd  George — 
speak  habitually  in  a  quiet  conversational  tone.  The 
greatest  English  actors  are  as  a  rule  much  less  stagey 
and  are  more  simple  in  their  manner  than  are  many  of 
our  American  actors.  When  Wendell  Phillips  was  de- 
livering those  speeches  on  the  abolition  of  slavery  which 
aroused  the  passions  of  the  people  to  the  point  where  they 
sometimes  answered  back  with  bad  eggs  and  brick-bats, 
he  did  it  in  a  quiet,  well  modulated  tone  of  voice.  There 
need  be  nothing  tame  or  spiritless  about  this  method  of 
delivery — the  highest  art  is  to  be  found  ever  in  the  right 
use  of  that  which  is  simple  and  natural. 

Eor  nine-tenths  of  the  time  there  may  well  be  a  sense 
of  reserve  power  in  the  preacher's  delivery.  He  keeps  his 
chest  full  of  air  so  that  his  tones  may  be  well  sustained. 
He  bears  himself  with  such  ease  that  the  people  are  feeling 
all  the  while  that  if  he  wished  he  could  readily  let  out 
another  hole  in  his  belt.  He  has  himself  so  completely  in 
hand  that  every  faculty  is  steadily  contributing  to  the  end 
he  has  in  veiw.  The  properties  of  the  whole  man — face, 
voice,  eyes,  arms,  legs,  frame,  throat,  and  lungs — are  act- 
ing together  in  the  spirit  of  team  work  for  the  achieve- 
ment of  a  certain  high  end. 

The  delivery  of  a  sermon  is  no  easy  task.     There  are 


THE  DELIVERY  OF  THE  SERMON  169 

some  men  whom  joii  simply  cannot  listen  to,  however  you 
may  try.  There  are  other  men  whom  you  can  listen  to 
by  a  steady  and  resolute  effort.  There  are  other  men  who 
speak  in  such  fashion  that  you  cannot  help  listening  to 
them.  It  is  for  us  to  strive,  every  man  of  us,  to  be  en- 
rolled in  that  third  class.  "His  word  was  with  power" 
— there  was  no  escape  for  those  who  heard,  from  its  accent 
of  authority. 

The  heart  has  large  place  in  the  delivery  of  a  sermon. 
Unless  the  man  is  directly  sympathetic  with  his  theme 
and  with  his  main  purpose  in  preaching  that  particular 
sermon,  the  whole  service  will  savor  of  the  nature  of  a 
mechanical  performance.  The  cold,  hard,  selfish,  indif- 
ferent, ungodly  man  can  never  preach  a  sermon  on  the 
love  of  God  or  upon  any  of  the  worthier  aspects  of  human 
nature  with  any  effect,  I  care  not  what  splendid  material 
he  may  have  in  his  notes.  Though  I  speak  with  the 
tongues  of  men  and  of  angels  and  have  not  the  love  of 
God  in  my  heart  and  a  great  warm  love  for  those  people 
to  whom  my  words  are  addressed,  I  become  as  sounding 
brass  or  a  clanging  cymbal. 

There  should  be  no  least  suspicion  of  the  self-conscious, 
the  pompous,  the  dictatorial  attitude  in  the  man  who  is 
preaching  the  gospel  of  the  Son  of  God.  He  is  not  laying 
down  the  law  to  a  long-suffering  congregation.  If  he 
flings  out  carelessly  and  harshly  against  the  shortcomings 
of  his  fellow-beings  in  a  sort  of  "keep-off-the-grass"  man- 
ner, he  will  defeat  the  very  ends  he  has  in  view.  There  is 
a  lot  of  pain  and  grief  in  the  world  connected  up  by 
spiritual  wireless  with  those  lives  there  before  him — let 
him  set  himself  deliberately  and  sympathetically  to  min- 


170  THE  ART  OF  PREACHING 

'  ister  to  all  that  need.  He  is  not  seeking  to  have  lordship 
over  their  minds,  but  to  be  a  helper  in  their  time  of  stress. 
He  is  there,  as  St.  Paul  was,  to  be  "their  servant  for 
Jesus'  sake."  He  may  well  say  by  his  bearing,  by  his 
tone  of  voice,  and  by  the  very  atmosphere  he  bears  with 
him  into  the  pulpit,  "I  am  among  you  as  one  who 
serves." 

I  shall  never  forget  the  description  given  by  a  friend 
of  mine  of  a  service  which  he  once  attended  in  the  city 
of  London.  The  preacher  was  George  MacDonald.  He 
entered  the  pulpit,  not  arrayed  in  conventional  black,  but 
in  a  gray  tweed  suit  and  a  red  necktie.  The  tokens  of 
his  ordination  were  not  in  his  clothes  but  in  his  life. 

He  read  for  the  Scripture  lesson  that  morning  the 
eleventh  chapter  of  Hebrews.  When  the  time  came  for 
the  sermon,  George  MacDonald  said:  "You  have  all 
heard  about  these  men  of  feyth.  I  shall  not  try  to  tell 
you  what  feyth  is — there  are  theological  professors  who 
can  do  that  much  better  than  I  could  do  it.  I  am  here 
to  help  you  to  believe."  Then  followed  such  a  simple, 
heartfelt,  and  majestic  manifestation  of  the  man's  own 
faith  in  those  imseen  realities  which  are  eternal,  as  to 
beget  faith  in  the  minds  and  hearts  of  all  his  hearers. 
•  His  heart  was  in  his  work,  and  his  delivery  was  effective 
because  it  rested  back  upon  the  genuine  beauty  of  his  own 
inner  life. 

Every  man  who  preaches  at  all  must  launch  out  into  the 
deep  where,  as  he  knows  full  well,  the  water  is  over  his 
head.  He  must  hold  up  before  the  aspiring  hearts  of  his 
hearers  ideals  which  have  by  no  means  been  fully  realized 
in  his  own  imperfect  life.    He  must  point  to  higher  levels 


THE  DELIVERY  OF  THE  SERMON  171 

of  spiritual  experience,  where  he  has  not  as  yet  been  able 
to  walk  himself  with  even  tread.  If  he  would  not  make 
his  preaching  pathetically  meager  in  its  outlook,  he  must 
allow  his  utterance  to  outnin  his  achievements,  saying 
with  the  apostle  "not  as  though  I  had  already  attained 
or  were  already  made  perfect,  but  this  one  thing  I  do, 
forgetting  the  things  which  are  behind  and  reaching  for 
the  things  which  are  ahead,  I  press  toward  the  mark." 

All  this  is  so  evident  as  to  go  without  saying.  Yet  even 
so,  the  best  part  of  any  man's  deliverance  is  that  which 
comes  forth  in  vital  fashion  out  of  the  heart  of  his  own 
experience  of  the  truth  it  contains.  That  higher  mode  of 
life  which  he  makes  bold  to  urge  upon  his  fellows  must 
have  its  beginnings  and  its  promise  of  ultimate  success 
in  the  depths  of  his  own  soul.  It  must  be  that  if  his 
preaching  is  to  be  anything  better  than  a  theatrical  per- 
formance. 

The  devil  of  unreality  goes  about  like  a  roaring  lion 
seeking  whom  he  may  devour.  The  first  house  he  heads 
for  when  he  comes  to  town  is  the  parsonage.  If  he  is 
allowed  to  get  in  and  to  make  himself  at  home  among 
your  habits  of  speech  and  of  life  he  will  eat  you  up  almost 
before  you  know  it.  The  only  way  to  keep  that  beast, 
and  all  the  wolves  which  travel  with  him,  from  your  door, 
is  to  make  sure  that  the  best  part  of  your  preaching  roots 
down  genuinely  into  the  moods  and  purposes  of  your  own 
heart.  "The  preacher  who  really  believes  the  half-truth, 
will  have  more  power  than  the  preacher  who  half  believes 
the  whole  truth." 

How  the  deeper  experiences  of  Jesus  conditioned  and 
then  fortified  his  utterance!     He  not  only  introduced  a 


172  THE  ART  OF  PREACHING 

finer  mode  of  worship  which  should  be  "in  spirit  and  in 
truth"  for  his  own  Christian  followers,  he  also  changed 
the  mode  of  worship  for  faithful  Jews.  He  hoped  to 
abolish  the  very  habit  of  animal  sacrifices  which  was  in 
vogue  when  he  came  upon  the  scene.  "The  great  volume 
of  sacrifice  had  been  pouring  through  innumerable  chan- 
nels," as  William  J.  Tucker  once  said,  "from  the  heart 
of  man  into  the  heart  of  God.  Christ  met  and  over- 
whelmed the  sacrifice  of  man  with  the  sacrifice  of  God. 
It  was  the  inflowing  tide  of  the  ocean  staying  and  return- 
ing the  waters  from  river  and  creek  which  were  seeking 
its  bosom." 

"The  act  of  Jesus  was  an  act  of  sublime  daring.  We 
ask  instinctively.  Who  is  it  that  bids  men  cease  their 
propitiatory  rites?  Who  is  it  that  puts  out  the  fires  on 
sacrificial  altars  and  stanches  the  blood  of  sacrificial  vic- 
tims ?  It  is  He  who  carries  out  the  change  in  his  own 
person  and  offers  himself  as  the  Lamb  of  God  which 
taketh  away  the  sin  of  the  world."  It  is  the  man  who  has 
experienced  the  truth  he  would  utter,  by  the  struggles 
and  the  triumphs  of  his  own  heart,  who  wins  the  right, 
and  gains  the  power  to  speak  not  as  the  scribes  who  had 
learned  their  lessons  out  of  a  book,  but  as  one  having 
authority. 

It  would  be  difficult  to  say  how  much  of  religion  is 
feeling.  The  feeling  of  dependence  upon  a  Higher 
Power !  The  sense  of  kinship  with  the  Eternal !  The 
yearning  for  a  more  complete  fellowship  with  the  Unseen ! 
The  consciousness  of  accoimtability  to  One  who  sits  for- 
ever upon  the  Great  White  Throne!  The  quiet  sense  of 
sweet  security  when  we  know  Whom  we  have  believed! 


THE  DELIVERY  OP  THE  SERMON  173 

[All  these  deep  and  precious  states  of  feeling  enter  into  the 
very  warp  and  woof  of  religious  experience.  You  cannot 
address  yourself  to  those  more  delicate  and  intimate  emo- 
tions, you  cannot  mold  them  or  utilize  them  in  the  forma- 
tion of  finer  types  of  character  unless  you  have  already 
entered  into  them  yourself.  The  heart  knows  the  lan- 
guage of  the  heart  as  no  other  faculty  ever  can. 

The  considerations  of  prudence  may  point  to  certain 
conclusions  as  solid  and  verifiable  as  the  statements  of  the 
multiplication  table  and  as  powerless  to  move  men  to 
higher  levels  of  purpose.  The  voice  of  reason  and  the 
finger  of  expediency  may  indicate  a  certain  line  of  action 
as  clear  and  plain  as  the  ISTorth  Star — and  as  coldly  re- 
mote from  hiunan  well  being.  We  are  hearts  as  well  as 
heads.     We  are  hearts  even  more  than  we  are  heads. 

The  men  who  wrote  the  Bible  wrote  with  their  pens 
and  with  their  minds  up  to  a  certain  point,  but  when  they 
would  have  us  see  visions  and  dream  dreams  they  wrote 
with  their  hearts.  "Out  of  the  heart  are  the  issues  of 
life"  because  men  and  women  do  mainly  those  things 
which  they  feel  like  doing.  "With  the  heart  man  be- 
lieveth  unto  righteousness" — he  cannot  achieve  that  high 
end  in  any  other  way.  Therefore  any  one  who  ignores 
sentiment  or  makes  light  of  feeling  in  order  to  leave  more 
room  for  the  chilly  dictates  of  a  coldly  calculated  expedi- 
ency makes  a  sorry  trade. 

"The  night  has  a  thousand  eyes 
And  the  day  but  one 
Yet  the  light  of  the  whole  world  dies 
When  the  sun  is  gone. 


174  THE  ART  OF  PREACHING 

"The  mind  has  a  thousand  eyes 
And  the  heart  but  one 
But  the  light  of  the  whole  life  dies 
When  love  is  done/' 


""      Keep  therefore   as  the  preachers  of  a  gospel  which 

came  from  the  heart  of  God  when  He  so  loved  the  world 

\,    as  to  give  His  only  begotten  Son — keep  therefore  your 

^'-  hearts  with  all  diligence !     Keep  them  filled  and  charged 

with  delicate  sensibility,  with  tender  devotion  and  with 

joyous  enthusiasm,  with  gracious  longings  and  with  high 

resolve,  for  out  of  the  heart  are  the  issues  of  life.     The 
r' 

hest  language  and  the  best  style  of  utterance,  like  the  best 

type  of  courtesy,  have  their  seat  in  the  depths  of  the  soul. 
They  cannot  therefore  he  put  on  or  put  off  at  will  as  we 
change  our  clothes. 

When  you  feel  as  a  man  ought  to  feel  in  preaching  upon 
certain  great  truths,  your  attitude  and  bearing,  your  voice 
with  its  varying  inflections  and  modulations,  your  accent 
and  your  emphasis,  as  you  pass  lightly  here  and  rest  your 
whole  weight  there,  have  a  way  of  falling  into  line.  If 
you  have  had  any  sort  of  right  training  in  making  your 
body  responsive  to  your  thought  these  lesser  faculties  will 
-  recognize  and  obey  their  superior  officer.  In  any  great 
emotional  crisis,  sad  or  glad,  which  lifts  a  man  for  the 
moment  quite  out  of  himself,  his  elocution  and  his  ges- 
tures, unstudied  though  they  may  be,  are  likely  to  be 
— -  above  criticism.  If  then  you  would  make  the  delivery 
of  your  message  touching  the  great  verities  at  once  sincere 
and  artistic  you  must  live  in  them  as  a  man  who  would 
go  no  more  out. 


THE  DELIVERY  OF  THE  SERMON  175 

If  you  would  preach  well  keep  your  heart  ever  in  the  ^ 
presence  of  whatsoever  things  are  just  and  true  and  pure, 
in  the  presence  of  whatsoever  things  are  honorahle  and 
reputable  and  lovable.  Keep  it  there  until  the  inevitable 
reactions  come  to  abide  with  you  evermore  in  finer  forms 
of  feeling.  Then  as  you  stand  up  to  deliver  your  sermon, 
really  to  deliver  it  and  leave  it  as  a  precious  possession 
lodged  in  the  lives  of  those  who  hear  you,  let  those  feel- 
ings course  through  your  veins  like  rich  red  blood  and 
the  God  of  Peace  shall  be  with  you. 

It  was  my  good  fortune  in  my  seminary  days  to  hear 
Phillips  Brooks  preach  almost  every  Sunday  for  the  bet- 
ter part  of  the  three  years.  It  was  a  privilege  unspeak- 
able for  any  man,  particularly  for  a  raw,  unformed  young 
theologue.  His  sermons  were  full  of  sensible,  scriptural, 
helpful  ideas.  He  was  at  home  in  the  best  of  the  world's 
great  literature  and  his  diction  had  in  it  dignity  and 
grace.  Yet  even  so  those  who  have  never  heard  him 
preach  do  not,  in  large  numbers,  find  his  published  ser- 
mons attractive.  His  delivery  of  them  had  in  it  none  of 
the  studied  and  prearranged  tricks  of  the  professional 
elocutionist.  His  utterance  was  so  rapid  as  to  be  the 
despair  of  all  but  the  most  expert  stenographers — the 
words  came  pouring  out  at  the  rate  of  two  hundred  or 
more  per  minute.  He  never  made  the  least  attempt  at 
what  the  world  commonly  calls  "oratory."  But  it  was 
wonderful  preaching.  I  can  feel  the  tingle  of  it  yet  in 
my  nerves  and  the  inspiration  of  it  in  the  inmost  recesses 
of  my  soul  even  though  it  will  be  thirty  years  next  Janu- 
ary since  he  died. 
r-     The  great  power  of  his  uttered  sermon  lay  in  the  fact 


/" 


176  THE  ART  OF  PREACHING 

that  there  before  our  eyes  as  we  listened  was  a  great  and 
beautiful  soul.  He  was  a  man  of  God,  a  lover  of  his 
fellows,  a  benign  and  sympathetic  spirit,  reaching  out  the 
hand  ©f  help  to  each  one  of  us  that  he  might  lift  us  up. 
The  soul  of  the  man  back  of  his  sermon,  breathing  through 
it,  underlying  it  as  a  sure  foundation  for  its  reality,  over- 
arching it  as  a  benediction  from  above — ^the  soul  of  the 
man  preached  as  he  delivered  into  our  hearts  the  full 
content  of  what  he  had  brought.  It  was  deep  calling  unto 
deep,  bringing  up  from  profounder  sources  of  motive  and 
stimulus  those  new  impulses  which  sent  us  out  to  run 
the  race  set  before  us  with  a  finer  and  a  firmer  purpose. 

Your  effectiveness  in  the  delivery  will  be  strongly  in- 
fluenced by  the  style  in  which  you  have  prepared  your 
sermon.  When  the  missionary  goes  to  China  or  to  India 
his  first  task  is  to  learn  the  language.  He  may  spend  two 
or  more  years  of  hard  work  making  himself  at  home  in 
the  vernacular.  He  keeps  at  it  until  he  can  speak  the 
tongue  of  those  whom  he  would  win  to  Christian  life  in 
clear-cut,  vigorous  fashion  with  the  native  idiom  and  the 
accent  of  reality  in  every  word  of  it. 

In  the  vision  of  the  seer,  the  One  who  was  set  to  win, 
to  rule  and  to  save  the  nations  "had  a  sharp  two-edged 
sword  in  his  mouth."  His  sword  was  not  on  his  hip  nor 
in  his  hand  but  in  his  mouth.  Here  between  his  lips 
was  the  hiding  of  his  power.  He  was  to  achieve  by  the 
spoken  word.  In  like  manner  you  are  under  bonds  to 
learn  to  speak  the  English  language  as  well  as  it  lies 
within  the  power  of  a  man  of  your  size  to  speak  it  as  a 
result  of  years  of  hard  study  and  literary  discipline.  It 
was  One  who  spake  as  never  man  spake  who  said,  "By 


THE  DELIVERY  OF  THE  SERMON  177 

thy  words  shalt  thou  be  justified  and  by  thy  Words  thou 
shalt  be  condemned." 

Your  style  is  the  garment  in  which  you  clothe  your 
thought.  You  cannot  send  your  ideas  out  naked — they 
will  refuse  to  go  if  they  have  any  shred  of  modesty  about 
them,  and  people  will  refuse  to  welcome  them  into  good 
society  if  they  undertake  to  make  their  approach  in  such 
an  unseemly  way.  The  reception  which  your  message 
will  enjoy  at  the  hands  of  men  will  depend  in  large 
measure  upon  whether  or  not  it  is  well-dressed. 

The  best  style  for  public  address  is  one  which  makes 
your  thought  presentable,  interesting,  effective,  without 
ever  attracting  the  attention  of  the  people  to  itself.  A 
woman  has  always  overdone  it  if  the  people  who  meet  her 
in  society  think  more  about  her  clothes  than  they  do  about 
her.  She  is  dressed  exactly  right  when  her  robing  serves 
to  render  her  in  the  total  impression  made  by  her  per- 
sonality a  lovelier  and  a  more  interesting  factor  in  social 
life. 

The  word  style  came  from  "stylus,"  a  point.  It  was 
the  instrument  the  Romans  used  for  their  writing.  It 
indicates  the  chief  means  of  gaining  a  good  style.  Write ! 
Write!  Write!  And  then  having  done  all,  write  some 
more!  You  had  best  wi-ite  something  every  day  if  it  is 
nothing  more  than  a  brief  paragraph  on  the  back  of  some 
old  letter.  Let  it  represent  the  very  best  that  you  can  do 
in  composition.  If  you  have  already  learned  to  write 
shorthand  or  an  abbreviated  long  hand,  all  the  better — 
you  can  thereby  exercise  yourself  in  careful  composition 
without  too  great  an  expenditure  of  time. 

Write  sermons.     Write  them  out  in  full  from  time  to 


178  THE  ART  OF  PREACHING 

time,  even  though  jou  may  not  be  a  manuscript  preacher. 
It  will  make  the  sermons  you  preach  from  outlines  much 
better  in  their  literary  form.  Write  an  occasional  article 
for  your  religious  paper — have  something  to  say,  say  it 
and  say  it  in  the  strongest,  clearest,  mose  persuasive  man- 
ner you  can  exhibit.  When  you  have  the  chance  take  a 
sermon  which  seemed  to  "go  well,"  as  we  say,  and  re- 
write it,  making  it  fifty  per  cent  better  than  it  was  in 
thought  and  in  style.  Write  on  the  margins  and  on  the 
fly  leaves  of  the  books  you  read — ^write  out  the  thoughts 
that  have  been  started  into  being  by  what  the  author  said. 
Say  something  additional  yourself  and  say  it  as  well  as 
or  even  better  than  the  author  said  his  say.  By  this 
means  you  will  "covet  earnestly  the  best  gifts"  and  be 
constantly  reaching  for  "a  more  excellent  way"  of  ex- 
pressing your  own  ideas. 

We  have  been  told  on  high  authority  that  "reading 
makes  a  full  man."  So  does  drinking.  In  both  cases  the 
man  who  has  overdone  it  shows  signs  of  dizziness  and 
intoxication  as  a  result  of  his  "load."  Throw  the  book 
aside  occasionally  and  write  something  of  your  own. 
"Writing  makes  an  exact  man"  and  thinking  makes  a 
creative  man. 

There  are  three  main  marks  of  a  good  pulpit  style 
which  will  shed  strength  and  beauty  into  your  delivery. 
First,  clearness!  It  does  not  matter  what  you  say  if 
people  do  not  understand  what  you  are  driving  at  and 
understand  it  right  off.  You  are  speaking  straight  along 
and  they  cannot  linger  over  a  difficult  sentence  seeking 
with  dictionary  and  grammar  to  puzzle  out  your  meaning 
as  we  do  when  we  read  Browning's  "Sordello."     Your 


THE  DELIVERY  OF  THE  SERMON  179 

next  sentence  will  strike  them  between  their  eyes  before 
they  have  time  for  any  such  effort.  Your  meaning  has 
to  be  clear  as  the  tones  of  the  bell  on  a  locomotive  because 
there  is  no  time  for  them  to  "stop  and  look  and  listen" 
while  you  are  delivering  your  sermon.  I  had  rather  speak 
five  words  which  men  will  hear  and  feel  and  taste  than 
ten  thousand  words  in  an  unknown  tongue. 

Being  dull  and  obscure  is  not  being  deep.  There  are 
light-headed  young  preachers  who  have  a  fear  that  if  they 
bring  out  their  slender  stock  of  ideas  so  clearly  and  so 
simply  that  the  people  will  see  the  purport  of  it  all  from 
start  to  finish,  they  may  be  regarded  as  shallow  and  super- 
ficial. They  insist  therefore  on  wrapping  up  their 
thoughts  in  thick  garments  padded  with  verbiage  some- 
thing like  the  old  Russian  coachmen  in  Petrograd  who 
were  so  eager  to  display  figures  of  generous  proportions. 

The  complicated  sentence  which  reels  to  and  fro  and 
staggers  like  a  drunken  man  will  have  the  people  at  their 
wits'  ends  to  know  what  their  beloved  pastor  is  up  to  in 
those  verbal  tangles.  When  R.  W.  Dale  of  Birmingham 
was  giving  the  Lyman  Beecher  Lectures  here,  he  told  us 
of  a  preacher  whom  he  used  to  hear  occasionally  in  his 
youth  whose  sermons  invariably  consisted  of  a  series  of 
unwieldy  sentences,  each  one  "sprouting  out  into  joint 
after  joint  and  never  ceasing  to  grow  until  for  some  in- 
explicable but  altogether  beneficent  reason,  he  finally  said, 
lAmen." 

If  you  would  have  a  good  speaking  style  use  short 
words  for  the  most  part!  Short  sentences  for  the  most 
part !  The  long  involved  sentence  which  looks  like  the 
map  of  an  archipelago  with  various  outlying  islands  of 


180  THE  ART  OF  PREACHING 

meaning  and  of  qualifying  clause  scattered  along  on 
either  side  of  the  main  body  of  land  is  fatal  to  an  effec- 
tive delivery.  Short  paragraphs,  where  you  round  out 
your  treatment  of  some  particular  idea  with  measurable 
completeness  and  then  pass  on  to  something  else!  Put  it 
clearly  when  you  prepare  your  sermon  if  you  would  de- 
liver it  with  power. 

When  Daniel  Webster  was  quite  a  young  man  he  gave 
a  Fourth  of  July  oration  at  Portsmouth,  'New  Hamp- 
shire. The  Fourth  of  July  address  in  those  days  was 
likely  to  be  a  form  of  speech  where  one  would  hear  the 
flapping  of  the  angel's  wings  and  the  scream  of  the  eagle's 
mouth.  The  editor  of  a  thoughtful  review  published  the 
oration  in  full  together  with  some  words  of  wise  criticism 
which  ended  like  this :  "Here  is  a  lot  of  rhetoric  which  is 
mere  wording.  If  the  speaker  cannot  learn  to  use  simple 
and  sincere  language  he  can  never  be  an  orator  for  the 
common  people."  When  Webster  was  at  the  height  of 
his  power  and  his  laurels  were  sure,  he  said,  "I  read  that 
criticism  over  and  over,  and  finally  concluded  that  if  I 
was  to  get  my  living  by  talking  to  plain  people,  I  must 
have  a  plain  style." 

The  good  pulpit  style  is  also  marked  by  force.  "The 
sword  of  the  Spirit  which  is  the  word  of  God"  has  in  it 
the  strength  of  tempered  steel.  Pick  out  words  which 
can  stand  up  straight.  Build  them  into  sentences  strong 
enough  to  pry  a  reluctant  man  out  of  his  pew  if  need  be., 
Build  your  paragraphs  as  men  build  bridges,  strong 
enough  to  carry  without  a  tremor  the  full  weight  of  your 
biggest  truths  as  you  put  them  across.  Write  out  your 
sentences  and  then  utter  them  aloud,  thus  testing  them. 


THE  DELIVERY  OF  THE  SERMON  181 

to  ascertain  whether  or  not  they  will  bear  the  weight  you 
propose  to  put  upon  them  without  signs  of  breaking. 

You  have  already  learned  no  doubt  not  to  end  a  sen- 
tence with  a  preposition.  It  was  a  dainty,  fastidious 
teacher  of  English  in  the  High  School  who  said  once, 
"A  preposition  is  not  a  good  word  to  end  a  sentence  with.'* 
You  do  not  want  to  end  a  sentence  with  any  sort  of  weak, 
anemic  word.  Spontaneity,  promiscuity,  miscellaneous, 
differentiation — these  are  all  respectable  words  in  good 
and  regular  standing  in  our  dictionaries  but  they  furnish 
the  poorest  kind  of  a  terminal  for  an  uttered  sentence. 
Plan  your  sentence  so  that  when  you  let  your  voice  fall 
at  the  end  it  will  come  down  with  a  word  strong  enough 
to  drive  your  period  in  clear  to  the  head. 

If  you  would  have  a  vigorous  pulpit  style  shun  the 
habit  of  propping  up  your  sentences  all  along  with  little 
qualifying  clauses  and  with  modifying  phrases,  lest  some 
dunce  should  in  the  absence  of  those  five  barred  gates 
turn  into  your  statement  more  meaning  than  you  intended. 
You  have  heard  of  the  careful  young  divinity  student 
who  desired  above  all  things  to  be  g-uarded  in  his  utter- 
ance. He  said  to  his  people  one  Sunday,  with  his  head 
on  one  side  and  the  vox  humana  stop  in  his  voice  pulled 
out  full  length,  "My  beloved  hearers,  if  I  may  call  you 
so,  you  are  under  some  measure  of  moral  obligation  to 
repent,  so  to  speak;  and  in  case  you  do  not,  I  would  ven- 
ture to  suggest  that  there  is  a  remote  possibility  that  you 
may  be  damned,  as  it  were,  to  a  certain  extent." 

How  far  all  this  is  from  the  clear,  strong,  crisp  style 
of  our  Lord !  "He  that  saveth  his  life  shall  lose  it."  "It 
is  easier  for  a  camel  to  go  through  the  eye  of  a  needle 


182  THE  ART  OF  PREACHING 

than  for  a  rich  man  to  enter  the  Kingdom  of  God."  "l^o 
man  can  serve  two  masters."  "The  Sabbath  was  made 
for  man  and  not  man  for  the  Sabbath."  "The  life  is 
more  than  meat."  "The  Son  of  Man  is  come  to  seek  and 
to  save  that  which  is  lost."  How  firm  and  sure  was  His 
touch  upon  truth  as  He  put  it  in  words!  The  man  who 
cannot  learn  to  utter  sentences  as  strong  and  as  straight 
as  steel  ramrods,  would  better  become  a  man  milliner 
dealing  with  feathers  and  trimmings  rather  than  under- 
taking to  speak  in  public  to  his  needy  fellows  in  words 
which  are  "spirit  and  life." 

Your  style  should  be  marked  in  the  best  sense  by  a 
natural  beauty.  You  are  not  striving  primarily  for  ele- 
gance. You  do  not  want  to  make  the  sword  of  the  spirit 
so  handsome  that  you  will  be  afraid  to  draw  it  and  use 
it.  Beauty  in  public  address  does  not  mean  posy  work 
or  excessive  ornamentation.  Is  a  beautiful  woman  ever 
more  beautiful  than  when  she  is  dressed  in  pure  white 
with  perhaps  a  single  red  rose  to  give  that  touch  of 
color  which  makes  her  white  array  seem  all  the  lovelier? 
The  style  of  an  address  like  the  style  of  a  dress  may  be 
severely  chaste  and  simple  and  yet  be  elegant  in  the  best 
sense  of  that  word. 

You  can  deliberately  and  conscientiously  avoid  rant  and 
all  "tall  talk"  and  that  wild  exaggeration  which  would 
bring  upon  your  words  and  upon  your  life  the  reproach 
of  insincerity.  Ministers  more  than  most  men,  perhaps, 
by  the  very  fact  that  they  are  dealing  all  the  while  with 
interests  so  gigantic  and  with  issues  so  far  reaching,  are 
prone  to  overstatement.  The  story  is  told  of  a  certain 
Methodist  preacher  so  much  inclined  to  exaggeration  that 


THE  DELIVERY  OF  THE  SERMON  183 

after  his  Presiding  Elder  had  admonished  him  in  vain, 
his  brother  ministers  voted  that  he  be  called  before  the 
bar  of  the  Conference  and  be  publicly  reproved  by  the 
Bishop.  The  reproof  was  given  in  a  kindly  affectionate 
way  and  was  received  by  the  erring  brother  with  becoming 
submission.  He  promised  to  reform.  He  expressed  great 
sorrow  for  his  fault,  and  assured  the  Bishop  that  this 
habit  of  exaggeration  had  cost  him  many  "pangs  of  re- 
morse" and  that  over  it  he  had  already  shed  "barrels  of 
tears." 

In  the  interest  of  a  good  style  you  can  rejoice  in  a 
close  fit  between  your  meaning  and  your  phrases,  your 
words  closing  in  around  your  ideas  like  well-made  gloves. 
You  can  avoid  the  use  of  all  terms  which  have  been  soiled 
and  stained  by  unseemly  associations  until  they  are  no 
better  than  street  drabs.  You  can  eliminate  hackneyed 
threadbare  expressions  which  have  been  worn  on  so  many 
pairs  of  lips  as  to  be  worn  out.  We  have  now  a  whole 
collection  of  wearied  and  wearisome  phrases  in  current 
use  to-day, — "One  hundred  per  cent  American,"  "Red- 
blooded  men,"  "Live  wires,"  "good  mixers" — which  might 
well  be  retired  as  belonging  to  the  superannuated  list. 
They  have  long  since  become  so  completely  out  at  the 
elbows  and  run  down  at  the  heel  as  to  be  fit  only  for  the 
rummage  sale. 

You  may  by  right  method  feed  your  style  when  it  shows 
unmistakable  signs  of  becoming  weak,  thin,  famine- 
stricken.  You  can  keep  your  style  fresh  and  unworn  by 
replenishing  it  frequently  with  a  new  stock  of  useful 
phrases.  Words  get  tired  as  razors  do — so  the  barbers 
tell  us — and  they  beg  for  respite,  even  as  the  patient  peo- 


184  THE  ART  OF  PREACHING 

pie  who  grow  weary  under  the  ceaseless  repetition  of  cer- 
tain phrases,  have  already  been  hegging  for  a  respite. 
"Words  have  nervous  prostration  as  human  beings  have 
and  when  long  overworked  they  should  have  an  outing 
and  a  rest." 

The  style  of  many  public  speakers  has  been  weakened 
and  depleted  by  over-indulgence  in  newspaper  reading. 
The  English  of  the  average  newspaper  is  poor  in  quality. 
It  is  hastily  written,  to  be  hastily  read  and  as  hastily 
thrown  aside.  The  style  becomes  inevitably  diffuse, 
sloppy  and  frayed.  Live  with  the  great  masters  of  Eng- 
lish expression — The  King  James  translation  of  the  Bible 
^  and  Shakespeare,  Milton  and  Tennyson,  John  Ruskin 
and  Matthew  Arnold,  James  Anthony  Eroude  and  John 
Henry  Newman !  Live  with  them  and  upon  them  until  a 
weak,  shabby,  muddy  style  would  instantly  repel  you. 

I  am  not  pleading  here  for  you  to  become  phrase  makers 
— God  forbid !  You  have  only  twenty-five  or  thirty  min- 
utes for  your  sermon  and  the  cutting  out  of  useless 
verbiage  in  order  that  those  things  which  are  supreme  and 
vital  may  be  said  becomes  a  most  important  considera- 
tion. You  are  lost  unless  you  strive  for  a  style  clear- 
cut  and  compact.  But  strength  and  beauty  can  by  per- 
sistent practice  be  brought  readily  within  that  briefer 
.  compass  which  is  always  to  be  desired.  "The  language 
of  the  pulpit,"  as  a  wise  college  president  who  was  also 
an  excellent  preacher  once  said,  "must  be  the  language 
of  certainty,  the  language  of  sympathy  and  the  language 
of  hopefulness." 

Hear  this  bit  from  Joseph  Parker  of  the  City  Temple, 
London !     How  much  he  said  and  suggested  in  a  few 


THE  DELIVERY  OF  THE  SERMON  185 

words !  He  was  preaching  from  the  text,  "God  is  not 
worshiped  hj  men's  hands,  as  though  He  needed  any- 
thing." He  was  pointing  out  the  difference  between 
"needing"  a  thing  and  "wanting"  it.  Pointing  to  a  vase 
of  wild  flowers  on  his  pulpit  he  remarked,  "These  flowers 
were  growing  yesterday  in  Devonshire.  They  were 
plucked  for  me  hy  a  tiny  pair  of  hands  that  I  love.  Did 
I  need  them?  'No.  Did  I  want  them?  Your  little 
daughter  kissed  you  yesterday  morning  when  you  started 
to  your  business.     Did  you  need  it  ?     Did  you  want  it  ?" 

You  may  think  in  the  vanity  of  your  mind  that  if  only 
you  have  knowledge,  full  and  profound,  it  will  get  itself 
expressed.  It  may  after  a  fashion.  You  may,  as  the 
English  would  say,  "muddle  through."  But  your  thought 
will  only  get  itself  expressed  in  such  a  way  as  to  make 
the  delivery  of  your  sermon  effective  where  you  take 
pains  to  learn  how.  Pack  your  sentences  with  meaning. 
Squeeze  the  water  out  of  them  so  they  will  be  full  of 
useful  appetizing  substance.  Shape  them  up  as  sentences 
which  are  to  be  said  rather  than  read.  Then  stand  up 
in  the  full  strength  of  your  Christian  manhood  and  utter 
them  as  messages  from  the  Lord  you  serve. 

Hear  these  words  on  style  by  one  of  the  best  preachers 
in  N'ew  York  City!  "Select  the  broad-shouldered  nouns 
and  stalwart  verbs  which  will  best  carry  the  weight  of 
your  ideas.  Choose  adjectives  which  will  not  exaggerate 
and  adverbs  which  will  not  give  a  false  accent  or  color. 
Frame  the  sentences  with  words  so  clear  that  your  truth 
will  blaze  out  through  them.  Whip  your  paragraphs  into 
subjection  to  your  ruling  purpose  so  that  they  shall  carry 
your  thoughts  on  to  fresh  coronations  in  the  hearts  of 


186  THE  ART  OF  PREACHING 

those  who  listen.  This  is  one  of  the  greatest  achievements 
to  which  any  mortal  can  aspire.  It  is  a  victory  so  dif- 
ficult and  glorious  that  to  win  it  is  worth  an  entire  life- 
time of  heroic  and  unflagging  toil.  Use  your  pen — it  is 
the  key  to  one  of  the  kingdoms  of  power." 

The  King's  English  like  the  King's  daughter  is  meant 
to  he  "all-glorious  within."  It  is  meant  to  clothe  your 
ideas  "in  wrought  gold."  It  is  meant  to  "make  your 
arrows  sharp  in  the  heart  of  the  King's  enemies."  It  is 
meant  to  "ride  forth  in  its  majesty  and  to  ride  prosper- 
ously" because  of  the  truth  and  righteousness  it  contains. 
"Grace  has  been  poured  into  its  lips,"  therefore  God 
blesses  it  forever  upon  the  high  errand  to  which  it  is  sent. 
If  you  will  only  strive  to  have  it  so,  your  own  style  may 
exhibit  those  elements  of  clearness,  of  strength  and  of 
beauty  which  will  add  to  the  power  of  your  spoken  word 
now  thirty,  now  sixty  and  at  times  even  one  hundred- 
fold. 

If  you  can,  by  the  discipline  of  hard  work  and  by  the 
grace  given  you  from  above,  learn  how  to  prepare  a  ser- 
mon which  will  lend  itself  to  an  effective  delivery;  and 
if  you  can  bring  your  body,  your  mind  and  your  heart 
into  subjection  to  the  high  purpose  involved  in  real 
preaching,  one  can  scarcely  set  any  assured  limit  to  the 
measure  of  good  which  you  may  thus  bring  to  the  lives 
of  the  people  who  hear  you.  It  would  not  be  too  much 
to  assert  that  you  too  can  in  reverent,  humble  fashion  say 
of  your  own  uttered  word  what  was  said  of  old  touching 
that  word  of  God  which  finally  became  flesh  and  dwelt 
among  us  full  of  grace  and  truth.  "As  the  rain  cometh 
down    and    the    snow   from    heaven    and    returneth    not 


THE  DELIVERY  OF  THE  SERMON  187 

thither  but  watereth  the  earth  and  maketh  it  bring  forth 
and  bud  ...  so  shall  my  word  be  that  goeth  forth  out  of 
my  mouth.  It  shall  not  return  unto  me  void,  but  it 
shall  accomplish  that  which  I  please  and  it  shall  prosper 
in  the  thing  whereto  I  sent  it." 


VII 

THE    SETTING    OF    THE    SEKMON 

THE  best  type  of  sermon  does  not  stand  detached 
from  all  else.  In  its  work  of  ministering  to  the 
spiritual  life,  it  had  best  not  be  "a  priest  after  the 
order  of  Melchizedek"  with  no  supporting  antecedents 
to  strengthen  its  power  of  appeal.  It  adds  to  its  own 
inherent  strength  by  being  related  in  some  organic  way 
to  other  factors  in  the  common  task  of  Christian  nurture. 
The  sermon  may  well  claim  for  itself  all  the  reenforce- 
ment  which  may  arise  from  a  worthy  setting. 
ff  I  am  a  firm  believer  in  the  value  of  courses  of  sermons, 
where  there  is  some  uniting  principle  extending  through 
the  entire  series  linking  up  part  with  part  in  a  consistent 
whole.  There  is  nothing  to  be  gained  by  stringing  to- 
gether a  lot  of  colored  beads  of  varied  form  and  hue  upon 
some  slender  thread  of  interest  which  barely  suffices  to 
bridge  the  gap  between  Sundays.  (i^But  a  genuine  series, 
where  the  sermons  mark  successive  steps  in  the  unfolding 
of  some  great  truth  too  large  and  too  intricate  for  treat- 
ment in  a  single  discourse,  will  contribute  to  the  effec- 
tiveness of  any  pulpit. 

It  will  be  for  your  own  good  as  teachers  of  religion  to 
outline  and  develop  in  systematic  fashion  from  time  to 
time  such  courses  of  sermons.  It  will  train  you  in  better 
methods  of  study.  It  will  help  to  save  you  from  the  skit- 
tering, promiscuous  way  of  presenting  religious  tnith 

.188 


THE  SETTING  OF  THE  SERMON  189 

which  is  the  bane  of  so  many  pulpits. )  It  will  enable 
you  to  utilize  the  results  of  some  special  line  of  reading 
which  you  have  been  pursuing  for  an  entire  season.  It 
will  strengthen  the  habit  of  seeing  all  truths  in  their  rela- 
tion to  other  cognate  truths  and  in  right  perspective.  It 
will  round  out  your  treatment  of  the  more  august  aspects 
of  religion.  No  minister  can  say  everything  about  any 
great  theme  in  one  sermon — he  cannot  say  everything 
about  it  in  two  sermons,  nor  in  ten,  but  he  can  say  much' 
more  in  ten  than  he  can  in  two. 

It  will  also  be  good  for  your  people  to  have  the  Gospel 
presented  in  this  more  orderly  manner.  It  will  add 
greatly  to  the  instructional  value  of  your  preaching,  if 
they  are  taught  to  see  the  various  ideas  you  bring  to  them 
in  these  wider  relations.  The  repeated  impressions  made 
where  some  vital  truth  is  approached  on  successive  Sun- 
days from  different  angles,  viewed  now  in  the  cool  north 
light  of  intellectual  scrutiny  and  now  in  a  warmer  south- 
ern exposure  of  generous  feeling;  where  the  same  truth 
is  seen  in  all  its  rosy  promise  with  the  early  morning 
light  upon  it  and  then  viewed  again  in  the  more  mellow 
evening  light  of  the  setting  sun — these  repeated  impres- 
sions are  altogether  wholesome.  The  wise  trial  lawyer 
brings  his  argument  for  a  verdict  before  the  jury  now  by 
this  route  and  now  by  that,  until  by  virtue  of  these  suc- 
cessive presentations  he  has  convinced  their  minds  and 
persuaded  their  judgments. 

The  course  of  sermons  also  serves  to  steady  the  people 
in  their  church  attendance,  particularly  at  the  evening 
service  which  as  a  rule  has  in  it  a  larger  percentage  of 
opportunists  and  occasional  hearers,     The  well  arranged 


190  THE  ART  OF  PREACHING 

series  of  sermons  will  oftentimes  change  casual  into 
regular  attendants  and  fix  them  in  that  more  wholesome 
habit.  You  will  naturally  strive  with  all  your  might  to 
make  the  first  sermon  in  any  series  as  strong,  as  interest- 
ing and  as  vital  as  you  know  how  to  make  it.  You  will 
make  it  "suggestive"  in  the  best  sense,  as  it  open^  doors 
upon  broader  vistas  which  (as  you  delicately  intimate  in 
passing)  are  to  be  followed  up  later.  The  people  having 
felt  the  strong  appeal  of  that  initial  sermon  in  the  series 
will  make  up  their  minds  to  hear  them  all.  And  when 
they  have  been  at  church  for  eight  or  ten  siiccessive  Sun- 
day evenings  they  will  have  taken  a  real  step  toward 
becoming  regular  attendants. 

The  course  of  sermons  also  gains  in  general  attractive- 
ness. When  some  commanding  theme  is  announced  on 
your  church  calendar  and  through  the  newspapers  with 
six  or  eight  inviting  topics  springing  naturally  from  it, 
the  people  will  feel  that  this  is  too  large  an  order  to  be 
ignored.  They  might  be  able  to  resist  the  appeal  of  a 
single  sermon  standing  alone.  We  find  to  our  dismay 
that  an  amazing  number  of  people  in  any  community 
where  we  may  be  called  to  preach  are  able  to  stand  out 
against  this  alluring  prospect.  They  find  it  easier  to 
decline  our  offers  piecemeal  but  when  we  offer  them  a 
whole  bill-of-fare,  with  half  a  dozen  appetizing  courses  in 
it,  more  of  them  at  least  may  accept  the  invitation. 
"Come,"  we  say  in  scriptural  phrase,  "the  oxen  and  the 
fatlings  are  killed  and  all  things  are  now  ready.  Come 
ye  to  the  feast." 

The  course  of  sermons  will  enable  you  to  use  printer's 
ink  more  effectively.    You  can  shape  ;ip  attractive  display 


THE  SETTING  OF  THE  SERMON  191 

advertisements  in  the  church  notices  of  your  local  paper 
where  you  are  announcing  an  entire  series  of  sermons. 
You  can  use  window  cards  perhaps  in  some  of  the  stores. 
You  can  have  a  tastefully  gotten  up  bulletin  outside  of 
your  church.  The  children  of  light  can  afford  to  be  as 
canny  as  the  children  of  this  world — we  have  high  war- 
rant for  such  an  attempt.  You  can  set  the  people  of  a 
community  to  talking  about  the  course  of  sermons  now 
projected  or  in  actual  operation  at  "the  little  church 
around  the  corner"  in  such  a  way  as  to  put  that  church 
more  completely  upon  the  map  of  common  interest. 

The  course  had  best  not  be  too  long.  It  is  easily  pos- 
sible to  have  "too  much  of  a  good  thing,"  too  much  of  a 
great  many  good  things,  where  it  is  all  flung  at  us  at 
once.  As  Ian  Maclaren  said  here  at  Yale,  "The  people 
lose  heart  at  the  prospect  of  sixteen  sermons  on  'St.  Paul's 
Idea  of  Faith'  or  twenty-four  discourses  on  Job.  I  could 
not  personally  recommend  one  mentioned  to  me  by  a 
pious  minister  on  'The  Limbs  of  the  Almighty,'  although 
he  assured  me  that  it  had  enabled  him  to  include  some 
extraordinary  texts  and  that  it  had  been  much  blest." 

You  can  from  season  to  season  by  a  well  ordered  series 
of  sermons,  make  a  more  varied  appeal  to  the  different 
classes  of  minds  and  of  needs  in  the  community  you  are 
set  to  serve.  "Fishers  of  men,"  you  remember!  That  is 
the  way  our  commission  reads !  You  are  not  there  to  fol- 
low slavishly  some  preconceived  notion  of  your  own  as  to- 
what  sort  of  flies  should  get  a  rise  out  of  the  fish  which 
swim  in  those  waters.  You  are  there  to  study  their  habits 
and  their  preferences  in  order  to  catch  them  if  you  can. 
If  the  lure  of  such  standardized  appeals  as  might  be  sug- 


192  THE  ART  OF  PREACHING 

gested  by  a  Royal  Coachman,  a  Browii  Hackle  or  a  Pro- 
fessor does  not  achieve  the  desired  end,  then  you  may  well 
turn  over  another  leaf  in  your  fly  book  and  try  them  with 
Silver  Doctors  and  Parmachene  Belles.  "Follow  me," 
said  One,  who  in  the  freshness  and  the  originality  of  His 
method  of  approach  as  in  all  else,  is  the  Master  of  us 
all!     "Follow  me,  and  I  will  make  you  fishers  of  men." 

In  my  own  work  as  a  settled  pastor  I  made  it  a  rule 
every  other  winter  at  least  to( preach  a  course  of  sermons 
to  young  men.  The  young  men  themselves  are  likely  to 
be  there  in  unwonted  numbers  because  you  are  dealing 
directly  with  their  interests  and  problems.)  The  young 
women  will  be  there  because  they  will  want  to  hear  what 
you  are  saying  to  the  young  men  and  because  of  their 
interest  (entirely  unselfish  of  course)  in  the  spiritual  wel- 
fare of  those  young  fellows.  The  fathers  and  mothers  of 
young  men  will  feel  a  very  deep  and  tender  concern 
touching  that  whole  subject  with  which  you  are  dealing. 
They  will  be  there,  with  prayers  on  their  lips  and  with 
a  great,  sweet  sense  of  gratitude  in  their  hearts,  if  you 
are  doing  your  work  well.  You  can  safely  count  on  a 
sufiicient  measure  of  general  interest  to  save  such  a  course 
of  sermons  from  ever  becoming  in  any  sense  a  narrow, 
over-specialized  presentation.  You  can  if  you  will  sound 
the  deeper  note  of  appeal  to  our  common  humanity. 

You  could  preach  a  course  of  sermons  on  "The  Young 
Man's  Affairs," — his  main  purpose,  his  intimates,  his 
books,  his  recreations,  his  money,  his  wife,  his  church. 
During  another  season  you  could  preach  on  The  Young 
Man's  Assets, — his  body,  his  brain,  his  trade,  his  invest- 
ments, his  amusements,  his  religion.     You  can  deal,  as 


THE  SETTING-  OF  THE  SERMON  193 

you  go  along,  with  those  interests  and  habits  which  are 
likely  to  become  liabilities  rather  than  assets.  You  could 
during  some  other  season  make  an  entirely  different  ap- 
proach. You  can  speak  on  The  Young  IVian's  Questions ! 
How  much  of  an  education  shall  I  get  ?  Shall  I  learn  a 
trade  or  try  for  a  profession?  How  shall  I  spend  my 
evenings  ?  How  shall  I  spend  my  Sundays  ?  Shall  I  go 
into  politics?  How  much  time  shall  I  give  to  society? 
What  shall  be  my  relation  to  the  church? 

You  will  be  dealing  in  every  case  with  the  same  funda- 
mental interests  but  you  can  vary  your  approach  in  such 
a  way  as  to  make  each  series  interesting  and  helpful.  The 
last  church  I  served  was  only  a  block  from  the  High 
School  building  with  its  fifteen  hundred  young  people, 
and  not  far  from  a  great  State  University  with  its  more 
than  six  thousand  students.  During  the  opening  weeks 
of  the  college  year  one  autumn  I  preached  a  series  of 
evening  sermons  on  "The  Students'  Problems."  The 
choices  of  the  first  year,  athletics,  fraternities,  the  deci- 
sion as  to  a  life  work  and  the  religion  of  a  student !  The 
very  preparation  of  such  a  series  of  sermons  will  help 
you  to  get  into  the  right  mood  to  speak  to  that  body  of 
young  life  there  within  reach.  It  will  help  you  to  see 
the  world  through  their  eyes.  It  will  enable  you  to  speak 
to  them  in  the  tongue  in  which  they  were  born  and  with 
which  they  are  transacting  a  lot  of  business  which  has  to 
do  with  the  formation  of  character. 

You  could  preach  a  course  of  doctrinal  sermons,  ten  of 
them  if  you  like,  dealing  with  the  doctrine  of  God,  the 
divinity  of  Christ,  the  atonement,  the  inspiration  of  the 
Bible,  the  philosophy  of  prayer,  the  fact  of  conversion, 


194  THE  ART  OF  PREACHINU 

the  hope  of  a  future  life  and  other  cardinal  truths  of 
our  Christian  faith.  The  people  will  come  with  their  ears 
and  their  minds  open,  if  you  do  not  frighten  them  away 
by  announcing  the  course  as  "doctrinal  sermons."  Your 
truth  will  smell  as  sweet  by  some  other  name  and  it  will 
attract  more  people  if  you  do  not  label  it  as  "dogma." 

You  could  take  up  in  another  series  the  whole  question 
of  the  utilization  of  mental  and  spiritual  forces  for  the 
gaining  and  maintenance  of  sound  health.  We  have  been 
prone  to  leave  all  that  too  much  to  irregular,  wild-cat 
organizations  outside  of  the  church  of  Christ.  If  the 
church  itself  had  been  up  to  the  mark  thirty-five  years 
ago  in  its  presentation  of  a  full-orbed,  well-rounded  gospel 
designed  of  God  to  make  people  every  whit  whole,  we 
would  not  have  had  a  Christian  Science  movement,  a 
Dowie  movement,  a  !N'ew  Thought  movement  and  all  the 
other  "movements"  which  have  sometimes  been  scarcely 
better  than  diverting  antics. 

You  could  take  up  the  application  of  the  principles  of 
the  Sermon  on  the  Mount  to  social  and  industrial  prob- 
lems and  thus  aid  in  the  development  of  that  intelligent 
and  insistent  spirit  of  good  will  in  which  alone  these 
vexed  questions  can  be  solved.  You  could  thus  promote 
among  the  people  of  your  community  that  social  habit 
of  mind,  which  is  of  much  more  value  than  many  of  the 
economic  devices  and  social  panaceas  which  get  us 
nowhere. 

You  may  wish  sometime  to  preach  a  series  of  sermons 
historical  in  their  setting  and  background.  You  can  make 
them  intensely  vital  and  practical  as  you  relate  the  prin- 
ciples involved  to  the  needs  represented  by  those  lives 


THE  SETTING  OF  THE  SERMON  195 

there  before  you.  You  could  announce  a  course  of  ser- 
mons on  this  general  text — "There  was  a  man  sent  from 
God  whose  name  was  John."  As  a  matter  of  fact  there 
have  been  a  lot  of  men  sent  from  God  whose  names  were 
John.  John  the  Baptist  and  John  the  Beloved  Disciple, 
John  Wycliffe  and  John  Knox,  John  Calvin,  John 
Wesley  and  John  Bunyan,  John  Milton  and  John  Rob- 
inson !  When  you  have  finished  such  a  course  of  sermons 
your  people  will  have  had  served  up  to  them  a  big,  broad, 
juicy  slice  of  church  history,  full  of  nourishing  and  in- 
spiring truths  for  the  good  of  their  own  souls. 

You  could  with  great  profit  to  yourself  and  to  your 
people  follow  for  ten  months  the  cycle  of  lessons  and 
themes  in  "The  order  of  the  Christian  Year"  as  laid 
down  in  the  liturgies  of  the  Church  Universal.  You 
could  begin  in  the  month  of  December  with  the  assign- 
ments for  the  Sundays  in  Advent  leading  up  to  and  pre- 
paring the  way  for  the  birth  of  Christ  at  Christmas.  You 
could  move  on  through  the  record  of  the  appearance  of 
the  twelve-year-old  boy  in  the  Temple,  and  the  Baptism, 
the  Temptation  and  the  early  events  in  the  ministry  of 
Jesus.  On  the  other  Sundays  between  the  Epiphany  and 
Lent  you  could  take  up  in  an  orderly  way  some  of  the 
cardinal  truths  in  the  teaching  of  our  Lord.  The  Sun- 
days in  Lent  are  rich  in  their  historical  associations  cul- 
minating as  they  do  in  Holy  Week  with  Palm  Sunday, 
the  Last  Supper,  Good  Friday  and  Easter  Day  as  the 
great  outstanding  events  in  His  life.  Then  the  Sundays 
after  Easter  with  the  accounts  of  the  manifestation  of  the 
Risen  Lord  on  to  Ascension  Day  and  Whitsunday  com- 
memorating the  outpouring  of  the  Holy  Spirit  at  Pente- 


196  THE  ART  OF  PREACHING 

cost.  Then  Trinity  Sunday  and  the  Sundays  after 
Trinity  with  the  lessons  hearing  upon  the  character  and 
service  of  the  leading  apostles,  will  round  out  a  series  of 
sermons  which  even  in  a  non-liturgical  church  will  enrich 
and  deepen  the  sense  of  historic  values  in  our  common 
Christian  faith.  Try  it !  If  you  will  do  it  carefully  and 
conscientiously  you  will  thank  me  and  you  will  thank 
God  for  a  wholesome  suggestion. 

You  will  be  much  more  likely  to  deal  with  life  in  the 
large  if  you  plan  for  it  occasionally  in  this  more  delib- 
erate way  rather  than  leave  it  to  the  hurriedly  made 
choices  of  themes  from  week  to  week  with  no  sort  of 
system.  All  things  are  yours,  whether  Paul  or  Apollos 
or  Peter,  whether  John  Calvin,  John  Wesley  or  Edward 
Everett  Hale,  whether  Alexander  Campbell  or  General 
William  Booth  or  the  Archbishop  of  Canterbury!  All 
things  are  yours  for  ye  are  Christ's  and  so  were  they, 
every  man  of  them!  All  things  are  yours  whether  life 
or  death,  things  present  or  things  to  come,  athletics  or 
labor  unions,  the  love  affairs  of  young  people  or  the 
domestic  troubles  of  the  more  mature,  the  political  defeats 
of  good  citizens  or  the  crying  needs  of  the  less  fortunate 
elements  in  the  community!  All  things  are  yours  to 
study,  to  interpret,  to  illumine  with  the  light  that  never 
was  on  sea  or  land!  All  things  are  yours  to  consecrate 
and  to  enroll  as  consenting  and  contributing  factors  in 
that  Kingdom  of  God  which  is  an  everlasting  and  an  all 
inclusive  kingdom! 

And  you  can,  I  am  confident,  achieve  that  high  end  all 
the  better  if  you  so  outline  and  coordinate  your  preach- 
ing that  each  sermon  shall  not  stand  in  complete  detach- 


THE  SETTING  OF  THE  SERMON  197 

ment  from  all  the  rest.  Sermons  move  more  strongly 
where  they  advance  in  columns,  marching  forth  together 
like  an  army  with  banners  as  constituent  elements  in  a 
well-ordered  and  wisely-directed  campaign  of  spiritual 
appeal. 

It  may  help  some  man  if  I  name  here  a  few  books 
containing  first-rate  examples  of  this  more  systematic 
method  of  preaching.  "Washington  Gladden's  little  book, 
"Who  Wrote  the  Bible/'  was  made  up  from  a  series  of 
evening  sermons  which  he  preached  to  the  people  of  the 
First  Congregational  Church  of  Columbus,  Ohio,  to  ac- 
quaint them  with  better  methods  of  Biblical  study  and 
interpretation.  He  thus  introduced  them  in  a  construc- 
tive way  to  the  best  of  that  which  "the  higher  criticism" 
had  to  offer.  It  all  helped  to  place  their  confidence  in  the 
value  of  the  Scriptures  on  foundations  which  stand  sure. 
\William  Burnett  Wright's  little  book,  "Master  and 
Men,"  contains  a  series  of  sermons  on  the  Beatitudes. 
Each  sermon  on  a  Beatitude  is  followed  by  another  ser- 
mon on  some  character  in  history  who  seemed  nobly  to 
exemplify  the  particular  truth  contained  in  that  text. 
Moses  as  a  man  possessed  of  that  gentleness  which  is  des- 
tined to  inherit  the  earth !  Socrates  as  a  man  who  hun- 
gered and  thirsted  after  righteousness !  King  Alfred  as 
one  who  obtained  mercy  because  he  was  merciful !  Charles 
George  Gordon,  an  ofiicer  in  the  British  Army,  who  did 
not  refuse  to  fight  but  bore  himself  in  such  fashion  as 
to  make  peace!  George  Fox,  a  man  whose  pure  heart 
enabled  him  to  see  God!  It  is  an  admirable  little  book. 
Buy  it  and  study  it !  I  have  used  my  own  copy  of  "Mas- 
ter and  Men"  until  it  is  almost  worn  out ;  it  is  all  marked 


198  THE  ART  OF  PREACHING 

up  and  the  margins  are  so  filled  witli  notions  of  my  own 
which  it  started  into  being  that  it  would  require  a  skillful 
"Redactor"  to  distinguish  the  "original  sources"  from  the 
later  accretions  and  developments. 

Charles  E.  Jefferson's  book  on  "The  Character  of 
Jesus" — His  sincerity,  His  reasonableness,  His  originality, 
His  poise,  His  breadth,  His  optimism.  His  chivalry,  His 
generosity.  His  candor.  His  courage,  His  reverence — fur- 
nishes another  excellent  example.  Here  are  twenty-six 
evening  sermons  given  in  Broadway  Tabernacle,  New 
York,  and  addressed  mainly  to  young  men  to  awaken  in 
them  the  desire  to  know  more  of  the  Founder  and  Head 
of  the  Christian  church !  These  books  all  furnish  worthy 
illustrations  of  the  best  method  of  setting  a  series  of  ser- 
mons in  order  for  the  sake  of  a  deeper  and  more  lasting 
impression. 

The  sermon  may  also  add  immeasurably  to  its  strength 
by  being  set  in  a  well-arranged  and  well-conducted  order 
of  worship.  In  all  our  non-liturgical  churches  the  sermon 
is  commonly  regarded  as  the  outstanding  feature  of  the 
service,  but  it  had  best  not  stand  aloof  in  lonely  detach- 
ment from  other  vital  elements  in  that  hour  appointed 
for  the  satisfying  worship  of  God. 

How  much  it  means  that  the  church  has  a  practical 
monopoly  of  the  grandest  of  all  musical  instruments! 
The  pipe  organ  is  ours,  ours  to  enjoy,  ours  to  utilize,  ours 
to  consecrate  to  the  highest  ends  ever  achieved  by  the 
appeal  of  music ! 

When  a  trained  and  gifted  organist  is  seated  at  his 
console  he  has  at  his  command  an  entire  orchestra.  When. 
Harry  B.  Jepson,  for  example,  sits  down  at  the  great 


THE  SETTING  OF  THE  SERMON  199 

N^ewberry  Organ  here  at  Yale,  he  cau,  by  intelligent  regis- 
tration and  by  the  skillful  use  of  his  hands  and  his  feet, 
play  upon  forty  instruments  at  once.  "With  his  mighty 
diapasons  he  can  fill  Woolsey  Hall  with  glorious  harmony 
— he  could  fill  the  loftiest  temple  ever  built.  By  his  wise 
use  of  the  string  stops  he  can  have  all  the  violins  and 
cellos  and  double  basses  of  some  splendid  orchestra  play- 
ing together  in  perfect  accord.  By  his  reed  stops  he  can 
cause  a  congregation  of  listening  worshipers  to  hear  all 
the  clarionets  and  the  oboes  blending  their  voices  in  search- 
ing appeal.  By  the  softer  tones  of  the  salicional,  the 
seoline,  the  dulciana  and  the  vox  humana,  rising  and 
falling  with  the  opening  and  closing  of  the  swell  organ, 
he  can  whisper  to  the  people  messages  from  a  world  un- 
seen as  did  the  still,  small  voice  of  God  when  the  prophet 
stood  upon  the  mount  at  Horeb.  If  the  need  of  the  hour 
should  be  for  a  clarion  call  to  duty  or  an  imperious  re- 
buke to  spiritual  sloth  and  self-indulgence,  he  can  by  the 
harsh  strident  tones  of  the  trombone,  the  trumpet  and  the 
tuba  speak  as  Elijah  spoke  that  day  to  the  false  priests 
of  a  decadent  faith  on  the  slopes  of  Carmel. 

The  preacher  of  a  message  which  has  in  it  notes  of  ap- 
peal ranging  all  the  way  from  the  highest  joys  of  heaven 
to  the  lowest  depths  of  moral  despair  must  develop  and 
cultivate  a  sympathetic  understanding  and  a  sense  of 
loyal  cooperation  with  the  trained  musician  who  is  there 
at  the  organ  to  reenforce  all  his  own.  efforts  in  the  conduct 
of  worship. 

Here  is  a  great  congregation  gathering  from  the  north 
and  the  south,  from  the  east  and  the  west,  to  spend  an  hour 
together  in  the  House  of  God !     They  come  drenched  in 


200  THE  ART  OF  PEEACHING 

all  the  experiences,  joyous  and  somber,  ennobling  and  de- 
grading, inspiring  and  depressing,  known  to  the  human 
heart.  They  have  come,  many  of  them  at  least,  through 
the  streets  with  careless  chatter  or  perhaps  with  unkindly 
gossip  on  their  lips,  with  an  almost  total  lack  of  reverence 
or  of  aspiration  in  their  hearts.  They  have  come  with 
huge  and  soggy  masses  of  the  "Sunday  edition"  stuffed 
into  their  heads.  They  have  come  with  minds  burdened 
and  harassed  by  all  the  vexing  and  depleting  problems  of 
our  modern  city  life.  It  is  the  high  office  of  the  organist 
to  take  them  as  they  come  in  all  this  unpromising  mental 
array  and  then  by  the  power  of  this  noblest  of  all  instru- 
ments to  develop  in  them  a  sense  of  awe,  of  yearning,  of 
penitence  and  of  aspiration  before  you  ever  undertake 
as  a  minister  of  worship  to  utter  in  their  ears  the  opening 
words  of  the  service. 

It  was  my  good  fortune  once  for  five  months  to  supply 
the  pulpit  of  the  Broadway  Tabernacle  in  New  York  City 
during  the  absence  of  their  regular  pastor.  The  organist 
at  that  time  was  Mr.  Walter  C.  Gale,  a  cultured  Christian 
gentleman  and  an  organist  in  ten  thousand.  He  knew 
beyond  a  peradventure  why  he  was  there  and  to  what  high 
ends  he  had  been  appointed  of  God.  He  played,  as  the 
apostle  said,  "with  the  Spirit  and  with  the  understanding 
also."  He  prayed  with  his  fingers  and  with  his  feet,  as 
well  as  with  his  mind  and  with  his  soul.  He  looked  not 
upon  the  outward  appearance  of  the  score  as  he  spread  the 
music  before  him,  he  looked  upon  the  inner  content  of  all 
those  hearts.  He  took  those  people  as  they  came  in  from 
the  street  with  the  air  of  Broadway  in  their  lungs  and  in 
their  minds ;  and  then  by  the  power  of  his  music  he  began, 


THE  SETTING  OP  THE  SERMON  201 

to  soften  and  to  mellow  their  hearts,  to  refine  and  to  enrich 
their  thoughts.  He  caused  them  to  feel  that  only  with 
clean  hands  and  pure  hearts  may  men  ascend  into  the  hill 
of  the  Lord  and  stand  in  His  holy  place.  When  the  time 
came  for  the  minister  to  say,  "Let  us  pray,"  the  people 
were  ready !  May  God  in  heaven  be  blessed  for  the  value 
of  truly  religious  music  here  on  earth! 

The  Roman  Catholic  Church  has  not  been  studying  hu- 
man psychology  on  the  religious  side  through  all  these 
centuries  without  learning  something  about  it.  This 
church  is  altogether  too  wise  to  entrust  its  message  entirely 
to  one  faculty  of  apprehension.  It  has  something  to  say, 
it  has  much  to  say,  to  the  ears  of  men.  But  it  also  ad- 
dresses itself  to  their  eyes.  By  its  style  of  architecture 
it  is  forever  saying  to  the  careless,  "The  Lord  is  in  His 
holy  temple,  let  all  the  earth  keep  silence  before  Him." 
No  one  ever  mistakes  a  well-built  Roman  Catholic  church 
for  a  concert  hall  or  a  place  to  play  billiards.  The  exterior 
as  well  as  the  interior  of  the  building  seems  to  be  saying, 
"This  is  none  other  than  the  house  of  God.  This  is  the 
gate  of  heaven."  By  painting  and  by  sculpture,  by  its 
altar  pieces  and  by  its  Stations  of  the  Cross,  by  the  vest- 
ments of  its  priests  and  by  the  robing  of  its  acolytes,  the 
Catholic  Church  is  making  its  steady  appeal  through  the 
sense  of  sight  to  the  inmost  recesses  of  the  soul.  It  does 
not  leave  out  of  account  even  the  humbler  sense  of  smell. 
By  the  clouds  of  fragrant  incence  and  by  the  association 
of  ideas  (which  comes  more  surely  and  more  strongly 
perhaps  with  the  sense  of  smell  than  with  any  other  one 
of  the  five  senses)  the  Catholic  Church  attaches  the  habit 
^of  devotion  to  a  certain  aroma  found  ever  in  its  appointed 


202  THE  ART  OF  PREACHING 

places  of  prayer.  It  knows  full  well  how  to  employ  all 
these  properties  of  worship  in  such  a  way  as  to  give  a 
suitable  setting  for  the  uttered  words  of  its  priests. 

The  ordinary  cultus  of  the  Protestant  Church  is  much 
simpler  in  every  way  but  it  may  well  be  ordered  with  equal 
discretion.  You  too  have  at  your  disposal  certain  "proper- 
ties," as  a  stage  manager  would  say,  which  can  be  em- 
ployed most  effectively  in  promoting  the  spirit  of  worship. 
You  have  there  in  your  hands  the  greatest  of  all  books — 
it  is  "a  book  of  final  values  for  all  who  would  live  nobly." 
There  are  portions  of  it  with  positive  liturgical  value — 
these  can  be  read  responsively  in  such  a  way  as  to  enlist 
and  organize  the  worshiping  instincts  of  an  entire  con- 
gregation. There  are  outstanding  passages  which  are  veri- 
table classics  in  their  literary  form  and  in  their  spiritual 
content.  The  Sermon  on  the  Mount,  the  parables  of  the 
Prodigal  Son  and  of  the  Good  Samaritan,  the  story  of 
the  woman  in  Simon's  house,  the  story  of  the  woman  at 
Jacob's  well,  and  the  story  of  the  man  born  blind !  There 
are  high  places  such  as  the  tenth  and  the  fourteenth  chap- 
ters of  John,  the  eighth  chapter  of  Romans  and  the  thir- 
teenth chapter  of  First  Corinthians,  the  heart  of  the  letter 
to  the  Ephesians  and  the  heart  of  the  letter  to  the  Philip- 
pians — all  these  should  be  read  as  Scripture  lessons  in 
every  Christian  church  at  least  once  each  year. 

There  are  the  great  narratives  in  the  Old  Testaraent! 
The  stories  of  Abraham  and  Isaac,  of  Jacob's  struggle  at 
Jabbok  Ford,  of  Joseph  and  his  brothers,  of  Moses,  Ba- 
laam, and  Joshua,  of  David,  Solomon,  and  Elijah,  of 
Z^Taaman,  JSTehemiah,  and  Job — all  these  have  in  them 
perennial  interest  and  value  for  the  life  of  the  race.    By 


THE  SETTING  OF  THE  SERMON  203 

a  bit  of  judicious  selecting  and  editing,  bj  the  omission  of 
redundant  phrases  and  of  less  significant  details,  any  one 
of  those  great  narratives  may  be  brought  within  suitable 
compass  for  a  morning  or  an  evening  lesson.  The  min- 
ister of  worship  who  plods  wearily  through  some  entire 
chapter  simply  because  his  text  happens  to  stand  within 
its  confines,  without  ever  skipping  a  verse  or  omitting  the 
long  unpronounceable  name  of  some  obscure  individual, 
has  not  as  yet  learned  the  alphabet  of  Scripture  reading. 
Study  to  show  thyself  approved  unto  God,  a  workman  that 
need  not  be  ashamed,  rightly  dividing  the  word  of 
truth ! 

William  M.  Taylor  of  New  York  told  this  story  of  a 
minister  who  had  not  properly  learned  his  trade.  "Some 
years  ago  a  friend  from  the  other  side  occupied  my  pulpit 
and  read  the  latter  half  of  the  third  chapter  of  Luke's 
Gospel  which  consists  of  the  genealogy  of  Joseph.  As  he 
went  on  with  the  ever  recurring  phrase  Vhich  was  the 
son  of  'which  was  the  son  of  Vhich  was  the  son  of  I 
saw  a  broad  grin  spreading  over  the  faces  of  the  people. 
When  he  announced  his  text  in  the  words  'Adam,  which 
was  the  son  of  God'  I  could  see  why  he  had  chosen  to  read 
such  a  passage.  But  still  the  fact  that  his  text  was  taken 
from  the  last  entry  in  the  table  was  no  proper  reason  for 
reading  the  whole  of  it.  The  amusement  of  his  hearers 
at  the  strangeness  of  the  selection  was  an  unfortunate 
preparation  for  the  prayer  which  followed." 

You  may  upon  occasion  read  a  composite  lesson,  made 
.up  of  portions  of  Scripture  taken  from  three  or  four  dif- 
ferent places  in  your  Bible,  both  in  the  Old  Testament 
and  in  the  New.     They  belong  together  in  the  unity  of 


204  THE  ART  OF  PREACHING 

the  spirit  and  in  the  bond  of  a  common  purpose  rather 
than  from  any  accidental  proximity  on  the  printed  page. 
Read  them  to  your  people  as  a  veritable  message  from  the 
God  of  love  to  the  moral  needs  of  mankind  without  stop- 
ping in  each  case  to  inform  the  congregation  precisely 
where  each  portion  of  your  lesson  may  be  found.  What 
earthly  importance  attaches  to  the  fact  that  you  are  read- 
ing now  from  the  thirteenth  chapter  of  ISTehemiah  begin- 
ning at  the  twenty-third  verse,  and  now  from  some  other 
locality  equally  remote  from  the  personal  knowledge  of 
most  of  those  to  whom  you  are  reading!  N'either  con- 
science nor  taste  impels  one  to  waste  time  in  naming  such 
irrelevant  details.  Read  it !  Read  it  well !  Read  it  with- 
out comment!  What  right  have  you  "to  muffle  its  tnusic 
in  the  folds  of  your  own  conjectures."  Read  it  in  such 
fashion  that  the  people  will  mark,  learn,  and  inwardly 
digest  the  meaning  of  it  all,  and  be  moved  to  embrace  and 
ever  hold  fast  the  blessed  hope  of  everlasting  life  which 
there  stands  revealed ! 

How  much  is  suggested  in  that  Scripture  passage  where 
we  read  that  "Ezra  the  scribe  stood  upon  a  pulpit  of  wood" 
and  "he  opened  the  book  in  the  sight  of  all  the  people."  It 
was  no  mere  physical  performance.  He  "read  in  the  book 
of  the  law  distinctly,"  the  record  says,  "and  gave  the 
sense  and  caused  them  to  understand  the  reading." 

He  "opened  the  book"  as  a  skilled  interpreter  of  its 
deeper  meaning.  He  made  clear  its  rich  content  by  the 
very  manner  of  his  reading.  He  uncovered  to  the  souls 
of  men  the  divine  message  which  lay  beneath  the  surface 
of  the  written  word  by  his  own  intelligent,  sympathetic 
modulation.     He  showed  its  bearing  upon  present  need 


THE  SETTING  OF  THE  SERMON  205 

and  duty.  He  related  its  age-long  helpfulness  to  the  moods 
and  opportunities  of  the  hour. 

"He  read  therein  from  morning  until  mid-day  .  .  . 
and  the  ears  of  all  the  people  were  attentive."  He  must 
have  heen  a  much  better  reader  than  are  some  of  the  read- 
ers of  Scripture  in  our  modern  pulpits.  Had  he  read  those 
stately  words  in  that  pious,  artificial  sing-song  sometimes 
employed  by  the  cleric  who  is  more  conscious  of  his  cloth 
than  of  his  soul ;  had  he  read  them  in  that  strained,  would- 
be-impressive  humbug  fashion  sometimes  heard  in  the  pul- 
pit; had  he  read  them  in  that  hard  perfunctory  tone,  as 
lacking  in  any  true  sense  of  sympathy  as  the  noise  of  a 
badly  worn  victrola,  not  even  those  devoted  Hebrews  who 
had  journeyed  back  to  the  Holy  City  would  have  shown 
themselves  "attentive  from  morning  until  mid-day." 

The  minister  who  is  not  able  to  read  this  Book  in  such 
a  way  as  to  enlist  the  attention  and  hold  the  interest  of 
a  congregation  needs  to  be  born  again.  Mind  and  voice 
alone,  however  they  may  be  informed  and  trained,  are 
>never  quite  competent  to  read  the  Book  in  such  a  way  as 
to  "open  it  and  to  give  the  sense"  and  cause  the  people  to 
hang  upon  it  as  a  veritable  message  from  the  Eternal. 
The  whole  man  must  read.  It  is  the  heart  that  feels  and 
loves  and  has  experienced  the  truth  there  contained,  which 
renders  its  possessor  able  to  make  his  very  reading  of  the 
Scripture  a  spiritual  exercise.  It  is  a  high  art.  It  is  an 
art  to  be  mastered  both  by  increased  attention  to  a  wisely 
conceived  technique  and  by  those  profounder  spiritual  ex- 
periences which  serve  to  render  mind  and  voice  a  more 
perfect  medium  for  the  conveyance  of  the  word  of  God 
to  the  souls  of  men.    Learn  how  to  read  your  lessons  aright 


206  THE  ART  OF  PREACHING 

and  you  will  have  taken  a  long  stride  toward  giving  your 
sermon  a  suitable  setting. 

"If  we  master  the  meaning  of  the  passage  we  intend  to 
read  in  public,"  said  R.  W.  Dale;  "if  we  enter  so  fully 
into  the  spirit  of  what  we  are  reading  that  the  printed  book 
vanishes  and  the  story  it  tells  comes  to  us  fresh  from  the 
man  who  wrote  it ;  if  we  read  a  psalm  as  if  we  ourselves 
had  heard  it  as  a  confession  of  sin  from  the  lips  of  David ; 
a  prophecy  of  Isaiah  with  the  feeling  which  the  words 
would  excite  if  we  ourselves  had  heard  him  denouncing 
the  sins  of  the  people  and  predicting  the  glories  of  God's 
Kingdom ;  a  passage  from  Paul  with  that  perfect  sympathy 
with  the  sorrow  and  the  anger  of  the  Apostle  in  his  con- 
flict with  the  Judaizers;  if,  in  short,  by  the  exercise  of 
imagination  we  place  ourselves  by  the  very  side  of  the 
men  who  wrote  the  Bible,  see  what  they  saw  and  feel 
what  they  felt,  our  very  reading  of  the  Scriptures  will 
throw  an  intense  light  on  every  passage."  And  it  will 
also  develop  the  right  mood  in  the  congregation  for  the 
more  effective  delivery  of  the  sermon. 

You  have  in  your  hands  also  a  hymn  book  where  the 
saints  and  the  singers  of  all  ages  and  of  all  churches  have 
lifted  up  their  hearts  to  the  One  God  and  Father  of  us 
all,  praising  him  in  the  beauty  of  holiness!  Here  in  a 
single  hymnal  in  constant  use  in  almost  any  one  of  our 
churches  are  "Blest  be  the  tie  that  binds"  and  "I  need 
Thee  every  hour,"  written  by  Baptists !  Here  are  "Holy, 
Holy,  Holy,  Lord  God  Almighty,"  and  "The  Church's  one 
foundation  is  Jesus  Christ  her  Lord,"  written  by  Episco- 
palians! Here  are  "Love  Divine,  all  love  excelling"  and 
"Jesus,  lover  of  my  soul"  written  by  a  Methodist !    Here 


THE  SETTING  OF  THE  SERMON  207 

are  "Stand  up,  stand  up  for  Jesus"  and  "I  heard  the  voice 
of  Jesus  say,  Come  unto  me  and  rest"  written  by  Presby- 
terians. Here  are  "Lead  kindly  light"  and  "Jerusalem 
the  golden"  written  by  Eoman  Catholics!  Here  are  "A 
mighty  Fortress  is  our  God"  and  "N^ow  thank  we  all  our 
God"  written  by  Lutherans!  Here  are  "N"earer  my  God 
to  Thee"  and  "In  the  Cross  of  Christ  I  glory"  written 
by  Unitarians!  Here  are  "My  faith  looks  up  to  Thee" 
.and  "O  Master,  let  me  walk  with  Thee"  written  by  Con- 
gregationalists !  Doctrinal  discussion  and  personal  prefer- 
ence in  the  matter  of  ritual  and  polity  may  divide  us  but 
we  all  come  together  in  prayer  and  praise. 

^Now  with  that  hymnal,  as  a  splendid  property  of  wor- 
ship, in  your  hands  and  in  the  hands  of  all  your  people 
and  with  a  skillful,  sympathetic  organist  behind  you  who 
can  "give  out  a  hymn"  in  such  a  way  as  to  awaken  in 
every  responsive  heart  a  warm  desire  to  sing  that  hymn 
which  you  have  chosen  in  the  very  mood  in  which  it  was 
born,  what  a  glorious  chance  you  have  to  enlist  that  whole 
company  of  people  in  an  act  of  common,  corporate  wor- 
ship! 

Sing  yourself !  Do  it  as  a  means  of  grace  to  your  own 
soul !  Do  it  also  as  a  bit  of  godly  example  to  your  people. 
The  lazy,  shiftless  minister  who  announces  a  hymn  and 
then  goes  back  to  his  chair  and  sits  down  while  the  people 
stand  up  and  sing  it,  as  if  praising  God  were  no  affair  of 
his,  ought  to  be  cast  out  of  the  synagogue.  Unless  he  is 
a  semi-invalid  almost  too  weak  to  be  there  at  all,  he  ought 
to  be  pitched  out  of  his  pulpit  forthwith  by  some  athletic 
deacon  ordained  of  God  as  the  Scripture  says  "to  purchase 
to  himself  a  good  degree  and  great  boldness  in  the  faith" 


208  THE  ART  OF  PREACHING 

"bj  thus  exercising  his  authority  as  an  officer  of  the  church 
militant.  "Let  the  people  praise  thee,  O  God!  Let  all 
the  people  (ministers  included)  praise  Thee!" 

'Now  we  cannot  all  sing  as  Caruso  sang,  but  any  man 
who  has  voice  enough  to  preach  can  "make  a  joyful  noise 
unto  the  Lord."  He  can  certainly  do  as  much  as  that 
when  several  hundred  other  people  are  doing  the  same 
thing  together.  Let  him  do  it  then,  that  the  Scripture 
may  be  fulfilled !  This  particular  Scripture  was  written 
expressly  for  our  comfort  and  encouragement  when  we 
are  conscious  of  our  vocal  limitations  and  for  our  re- 
buke if  we  fail  to  use  such  talents  as  we  do  possess  in  par- 
ticipation in  the  common  worship. 

I  have  given  you  Scripture  for  it  and  if  further  con- 
firmation is  needed  for  my  contention  here  it  is  from  the 
master  of  English  expression ! 

"The  man  that  hath  no  music  in  himself 
Nor  is  not  moved  by  concord  of  sweet  sounds 
Is  fit  for  treasons,  stratagems  and  spoils. 
The  nuotions  of  his  spirit  are  dull  as  night 
And  his  affections  dark  as  Erebus : 
Let  no  such  man  be  trusted." 

You  need  not  undertake  to  preach  the  particular  sermon 
you  have  prepared  for  that  day  in  every  one  of  the  three 
or  four  hymns  selected  for  that  service.  You  had  best  not. 
There  are  differences  of  operation  in  this  worship  of  God 
through  "psalms  and  hymns  and  spiritual  songs"  under 
the  immediate  guidance  of  the  same  Spirit.  In  a  single 
service  there  may  well  be  a  hymn  of  thanksgiving*  and 
adoration ;  another  hymn  of  penitence  and  confession  j  an- 


THE  SETTING  OF  THE  SERMON  209 

other  hymn  of  aspiration  and  intercession;  and  then  for 
the  closing  h;^Tnn  a  song  of  consecration'  and  high  resolve, 
embodying  the  particular  virtue  or  line  of  action  which 
you  have  emphasized  that  day  in  your  sermon. 

I  make  this  appeal  with  some  measure  of  insistence  be- 
cause I  have  tried  out  the  principle  I  am  urging  upon  you 
under  varying  conditions.  I  have  preached  to  congrega- 
tions made  up  of  the  rich  and  the  poor,  the  cultured  and 
the  simple,  the  saintly  and  the  sinful.  I  have  preached 
to  congregations  of  cool,  unemotional  New  Englanders 
and  to  warm  enthusiastic  Southerners  and  to  eager,  rest- 
less congregations  on  the  Pacific  Coast.  And  when  all  is 
said  and  done,  they  were  all  just  people,  children  of  one 
Father,  standing  alike  in  open  need  of  that  great  and 
gracious  help  which  comes  alone  from  Him.  If  you  will 
take  pains  to  learn  how  to  use  your  hymns  aright  and  how 
to  use  the  voices  of  those  waiting,  needy  people  aright, 
you  can  make  this  office  of  worship  a  rewarding  means  of 
grace.  And  if  you  succeed  in  bringing  it  up  to  any  kind 
of  fair  measure  of  its  possibilities,  you  will  have  done 
much  to  achieve  another  worthy  setting  for  the  best  ser- 
mon you  will  ever  be  able  to  preach. 

"Let  knowledge  grow  from  more  to  more 
But  more  of  reverence  in  us  dwell 
That  mind  and  soul  according  well 

May  make  one  music  as  before 

But  vaster." 

You  can  invite  your  congregation  to  rise  with  you  and 
utter  as  an  act  of  worship  their  common  faith  by  the  use 
of  one  of  the  great  historic  Confessions  of  the  Church. 


210  THE  ART  OF  PREACHING 

How  good  it  is  to  join  with  ancient  saints,  with  our  fellow 
Christians  throughout  the  world  and  with  one  another, 
in  affirming  our  helief  in  the  everlasting  verities!  How 
much  it  means  for  a  body  of  Christians  to  stand  up  and 
say  to  that  dull,  drab  materialism  which  is  the  bane  of 
so  much  of  our  modern  life,  "We  believe  in  God  the  Father 
Almighty,  Maker  of  Heaven  and  Earth.  We  believe  in 
Jesus  Christ,  His  only  Son  our  Lord !  We  believe  in  the 
Holy  Ghost,  the  Author  and  Giver  of  life  which  is  life 
indeed !"  How  much  it  means  to  say  in  this  corporate  way 
to  that  petty  individualism  which  is  too  blind  to  recognize 
the  strength  and  beauty  of  concerted  organized  effort, 
"We  believe  in  the  Holy  Catholic  Church,  the  Communion 
of  saints !"  How  much  it  means  to  say  to  that  life  which 
crawls  on  the  lower  levels  when  it  might  be  walking  in 
high  places  with  Him,  "We  believe  in  the  forgiveness  of 
sins,  the  resurrection  of  the  dead  and  the  life  everlasting." 
"O  give  thanks  unto  the  Lord,  for  He  is  good.  His  mercy 
endureth  forever.  Let  the  redeemed  of  the  Lord  say  so." 
And  the  very  saying  of  it  in  this  worshipful  manner  will 
furnish  added  setting  for  a  message  from  on  high. 

You  are  there  as  a  man  of  prayer  to  lead  and  guide  the 
people  in  their  prayers.  The  minister  of  worship  in  the 
Protestant  Episcopal  Church  has  placed  in  his  hands  for 
daily  use,  "The  Book  of  Common  Prayer."  It  is  a  great 
title  for  a  book — it  does  me  good  always  just  to  see  those 
words  printed  on  the  title  page.  And  it  is  a  great  book — 
great  in  its  comprehensiveness,  great  in  its  fine  phrasing, 
great  in  its  sympathetic  reach  inward  and  upward  and 
great  in  the  high  quality  of  the  spirit  of  devotion  there 
expressed! 


THE  SETTING  OF  THE  SERMON  211 

I  have  had  on  mj  desk  and  much  of  the  time  in  my 
pocket  for  the  last  thirty-five  years  the  prayer  book  of 
the  Protestant  Episcopal  Church.  I  could  not  begin  to 
tell  you  of  the  help  I  have  received  from  it  as  a  minister 
of  Jesus  Christ.  I  have  used  it  until  I  know  many  of 
its  beautiful  Collects  by  heart.  I  have  read  the  Litany 
again  and  again  when  it  seemed  to  fit  in  around  my  own 
need  like  a  well-made  garment.  I  have  read  day  after 
day,  again  and  again,  the  "Order  for  Morning  Prayer" 
and  the  "Order  for  Evening  Prayer"  and  the  "Prayers 
and  Thanksgivings  for  Special  Occasions"  until  they  are 
all  as  familiar  to  me  as  the  twenty-third  psalm.  We  are 
told  that  the  messenger  of  the  Lord  portrayed  in  one  of 
the  closing  chapters  of  the  Bible  "had  in  his  hand  a  little 
book  open."  The  use  of  that  little  book  of  "Common 
Prayer,"  which  may  be  held  in  the  hand  of  any  man  open, 
will  enrich  and  ennoble  all  his  prayerful  utterance. 

But  most  of  us  who  are  here  to-day  have  been  reared  and 
are  set  to  serve  in  the  non-liturgical  churches.  It  is  for 
us  to  learn  how  to  reach  out  in  sympathetic  fashion  and 
gather  into  our  minds  the  joys  and  the  sorrows,  the  hopes 
and  the  fears,  the  longings  and  yearnings,  the  victories 
and  defeats  of  a  whole  congregation  of  people.  It  is  for 
us,  closing  our  eyes  upon  all  things  earthly  and  turning 
our  faces  heavenward,  to  voice  all  that  need  to  Almighty 
God  in  fitting  words  of  our  own  choosing. 

It  is  an  august  exercise.  It  is  a  privilege  unspeakably 
precious  to  a  man  who  is  conscientiously  engaged  in  the 
cure  of  souls.  It  is  an  obligation  exacting  beyond  any 
other  single  office  which  the  minister  of  religion  is  called 
upon  to  perform.     "Prayer,"  as  President  Eliot  of  Har- 


212  THE  ART  OF  PREACHING 

vard  once  said,  "is  tlie  transcendent  act  of  human  intel- 
ligence." 

We  undertake  to  do  all  this  in  what  is  sometimes  called 
with  frightful  accuracy  "the  long  prayer."  It  had  best 
not  he  too  long.  A  man  can  talk  with  his  eyes  shut  in- 
definitely. He  can,  if  he  has  a  fairly  good  command  of 
language,  keep  up  a  flow  of  fervent  and  pious  words  for 
a  quarter  of  an  hour  or  more.  And  the  people  can,  some 
of  them  at  least,  keep  their  heads  down  and  their  eyes 
shut  for  ten,  fifteen  or  even  twenty  minutes  upon  occa- 
sion. It  might  not  be  profitable,  however,  to  inquire  too 
closely  as  to  just  what  is  going  on  in  their  minds,  or  in 
his,  for  the  last  two-thirds  of  that  time.  The  long  prayer 
is  sometimes  so  long  that  it  is  no  longer  prayer.  I  am  not 
quite  sure  that  this  last  sentence  could  be  parsed,  but  the 
sentiment,  I  am  confident,  is  altogether  sound. 

In  my  earlier  ministry  I  was  once  invited  to  deliver  the 
address  on  Memorial  Day  in  an  Eastern  city.  The  exer- 
cises were  held  in  the  Park  and  a  large  crowd  had  as- 
sembled. The  Mayor  of  the  city  presided,  a  Glee  Club 
had  been  engaged  to  sing  some  patriotic  airs  and  the  pastor 
of  one  of  the  city  churches  had  been  asked  to  offer  the 
prayer.  He  prayed  exactly  eighteen  minutes.  I  should 
have  been  loath  to  believe  that  such  a  thing  could  happen 
had  I  not  been  there  and  had  I  not  timed  him.  The  clock 
in  an  adjoining  steeple  struck  the  hour  just  as  he  began 
and  when  he  went  on  indefinitely  I  became  interested  in 
noticing  the  exact  time  when  he  concluded. 

This  is  what  he  did.  He  began  with  a  glowing  reference 
to  the  signing  of  the  Declaration  of  Independence.  He 
then  referred  by  name  to  the  more  prominent  political 


THE  SETTING  OF  THE  SERMON  213 

and  military  leaders  in  the  Revolutionary  War,  indicating 
the  principles  which  were  involved  in  that  struggle  of  the 
thirteen  original  colonies  to  be  free.  He  then  moved  on 
in  leisurely  fashion,  through  the  opening  decades  of  our 
national  history,  to  the  War  of  1812,  showing  us  how 
those  sturdy  patriots  went  down  to  the  sea  in  ships  and 
did  political  business  in  great  waters.  He  then  came  on, 
touching  the  high  places  in  our  national  development  here 
and  there,  to  the  Mexican  War.  This  is  not  a  period  of 
our  American  History  which  readily  lends  itself  to  moral 
idealism  or  to  religious  devotion.  But  this  man's  patriotic 
fervor  was  such  that  like  Othello's  spirit  of  revenge,  "he 
had  stomach  for  them  all."  He  stood  upon  the  walls  of 
Texas  and  showed  us  the  towers  and  the  battlements  there- 
of, giving  abundant  thanks  for  the  extension  of  our  boun- 
daries. 

When  he  reached  the  war  between  the  North  and  the 
South  (it  being  Memorial  Day)  he  really  warmed  up  to 
his  theme.  He  pictured  the  horrors  of  negro  slavery  and 
the  iniquities  involved  in  firing  upon  Fort  Sumter.  He 
showed  us  General  Grant  at  the  capture  of  Vicksburg  and 
General  Meade  at  Gettysburg  repelling  Longstreet's  ad- 
vance. He  proclaimed  the  Emancipation  of  the  slaves  in 
the  stately  words  of  Lincoln  and  he  went  "marching 
through  Georgia  from  Atlanta  to  the  sea."  Then  in  an 
eloquent  peroration,  he  outlined  the  resources,  the  present 
problems  and  the  prospects  of  the  United  States  o:^ 
America. 

He  was  earnest  and  he  was  honest  but  you  could  hardly 
call  that  sort  of  thing  prayer.  It  makes  no  difference 
whether  the  subject  matter  contained  in  the  utterance  i| 


214  THE  ART  OF  PREACHING 

American  history  or  the  theology  of  John  Calvin — it  is 
not  prayer.  The  man  began  by  saying,  "O  Lord,"  and  he 
concluded  by  saying  "Amen,"  but  within  those  two  far- 
flung  boundaries,  his  utterance  was  as  I  have  indicated. 
He  was  giving  an  address,  when  the  Committee  of  Ar- 
rangements had  invited  him  to  offer  prayer.  And  I  fear 
that  similar  performances,  not  so  extended  perhaps,  have 
been  given  on  other  occasions  when  other  men  have  like- 
wise forgotten  what  it  really  means  to  speak  directly  face 
to  face  with  the  God  of  all  grace. 

I  beseech  you,  brethren,  by  the  mercies  of  God,  that  you 
avoid  that  sort  of  thing,  first,  last  and  all  the  time,  just 
as  you  would  avoid  profane  swearing.  It  belongs  almost 
in  the  same  category — it  seems  to  many  thoughtful  people 
like  taking  the  name  of  God  in  vain.  If  you  are  to  "lead 
in  prayer,"  as  we  say  in  our  familiar  but  exacting  phrase, 
you  will  need  to  keep  in  mind  steadily  and  genuinely  the 
nature  and  meaning  of  the  august  exercise  in  which  you 
are  engaged.  You  must  pray  with  the  Spirit  and  with 
the  understanding  also.  The  tones  of  your  voice  must 
be  reverent  and  real.  The  language  in  which  you  clothe 
your  petitions  must  of  necessity  be  simple,  direct  and 
chaste.  The  least  touch  of  that  which  borders  on  the  flip- 
pant or  the  frivolous ;  the  use  of  phrases  which  have  been 
cheapened  and  coarsened  by  unworthy  associations;  the 
perfunctory  utterance  of  words  which  have  become  hack- 
neyed and  meaningless,  will  banish  that  mood  of  devotion 
in  which  alone  the  fervent,  effectual  prayer  of  a  righteous 
man  can  avail  what  God  meant  it  to  avail.  If  you  have 
any  sort  of  just  sense  of  what  you  are  there  to  do  you  will 
find  yourself  saying  to  Him  a  thousand  times  during  the 


THE  SETTING  OF  THE  SERMON  215 

first  year  of  your  ministry  what  the  disciples  said  of  old, 
"Lord,  teach  us  to  pray." 

"When  thou  prayest,  enter  into  thy  closet  and  shut  the 
door."  The  Master  was  not  defining  a  physical  act.  He 
was  not  concerned  ahout  the  place  where  a  man  should 
pray  but  only  as  to  the  spirit  in  which  it  should  be  done. 
Let  the  prayer  you  ofi^er  be  a  simple,  direct,  and  genuine 
transaction  between  your  own  soul  and  God !  The  min- 
ister standing  in  the  presence  of  a  great  congregation  may 
nevertheless  by  the  concentration  of  mind  and  soul,  by 
his  utter  absorption  in  the  high  task  in  which  he  is  en- 
gaged, enter  into  his  closet  and  shut  the  door.  He  is 
there  alone  with  his  Maker  because  his  prayer  is  offered 
directly  and  genuinely  to  God. 

The  enterprising  reporter  on  a  Boston  paper,  sharing 
in  that  deep-seated  and  oft-remarked  local  pride,  referred, 
in  his  account  of  a  religious  convention,  to  the  lengthy 
invocation  as  "one  of  the  most  eloquent  prayers  ever 
offered  to  a  Boston  audience."  He  may  have  builded  bet- 
ter than  he  knew.  Many  an  audience  (and  congregation, 
alas)  has  had  eloquent  prayers  offered  to  it  in  such  showy 
fashion  as  to  banish  entirely  the  spirit  of  devotion. 
'  I  know  of  no  human  exercise  so  difiicult  and  so  exacting, 
which  so  takes  it  out  of  a  man,  as  the  act  of  praying  in  the 
presence  of  a  congregation.  If  the  minister  can  take  upon 
his  heart  in  sympathetic  fashion  the  needs  of  all  those 
people  and  carry  them  up  in  well  chosen  words  by  his 
own  vital  faith  into  the  presence  of  God  with  a  genuine 
and  sustained  sense  of  the  sacred  nature  of  what  he  is 
doing — if  he  can  do  that  and  keep  it  up  for  five  or  six 
minutes  he  has  done  well.    The  moment  he  loses  that  sense 


216  THE  ART  OF  PREACHING 

of  sympathetic,  horizontal  touch  with  the  needs  of  his 
fellows  or  the  vital  sense  of  a  perpendicular  hold  upon 
God,  he  would  better  say  "Amen"  and  stop.  It  will  not 
avail  anything  for  him  to  keep  on  talking  (even  though 
he  talks  in  pious  fashion)  for  ten  minutes  more  when 
he  has  really  ceased  to  pray. 

Hear  this  testimony  from  Henry  Ward  Beecher!  "I 
can  bear  this  witness  that  never  in  the  study  in  the  most 
absorbed  moments,  never  in  those  chance  inspirations  that 
everybody  is  subject  to,  never  in  any  company  where 
friends  are  the  sweetest  and  dearest,  never  in  any  circum- 
stances in  life,  is  there  anything  that  is  to  me  so  touching 
as  when  I  stand  in  ordinary  good  health  before  my  great 
congregation  to  pray  for  them.  Hundreds  of  times  as  I 
rose  to  pray  and  glanced  at  the  congregation,  I  could  not 
keep  back  the  tears.  There  came  to  my  mind  such  a  sense 
of  their  wants,  there  were  so  many  hidden  sorrows,  so 
many  weights  and  burdens,  so  many  doubts  and  dangers, 
so  many  states  of  weakness !  I  had  such  a  sense  of  com- 
passion for  them,  that  it  seemed  to  me  as  if  I  could  hardly 
open  my  mouth  to  speak.  When  I  take  my  people  and 
carry  them  before  God  to  plead  for  them  .  .  .  there  is  no 
time  that  Jesus  is  so  crowned  with  glory,  no  time  when 
I  get  so  far  into  heaven  as  then.  I  forget  the  body,  I 
live  in  the  spirit.  It  seems  as  if  God  permitted  me  to  lay 
my  hand  on  the  very  Tree  of  Life  and  shake  down-  from 
it  both  leaves  and  fruit  for  the  healing  of  my  people." 

I  am  sure  that  much  of  our  praying  in  public  is  alto- 
gether too  mystical  and  too  theological  for  human  nature^s 
Sunday  food.  It  moves  in  a  realm  where  only  men  with 
college  and  seminary  degrees   are  accustomed  to  enter 


THE  SETTING  OF  THE  SERMON  217 

freely.  It  clothes  itself  in  language  which  unordained 
people  never  think  of  putting  on.  The  man  who  intro- 
duces into  his  prayer,  or  for  that  matter  into  his  sermon, 
such  terms  as  regenerative  and  propitiatory,  anthropo- 
morphic and  cataclysmic,  needs  to  have  a  heart  to  heart 
talk  with  some  plain  old  farmer  who  could  tell  him  a  few 
things  which  would  be  for  his  profit.  It  may  be  pre- 
sumed that  the  Lord  to  whom  the  prayer  is  offered  fully 
understands  such  terms,  but  it  may  be  assumed  with  equal 
assurance  that  many  of  the  people  for  whose  benefit  mainly 
the  prayer  is  being  offered  do  not  understand  any  one 
of  them. 

"After  this  manner  pray  ye" — not  always  in  just  those 
words  naturally,  but  let  the  Lord's  Prayer  indicate  to  you 
the  general  scope  and  method  of  your  public  devotions! 
There  are  no  technical  terms  in  the  Lord's  Prayer.  There 
is  not  a  line  of  theological  or  philosophical  patois  in  it 
from  start  to  finish.  This  is  not  the  only  reason,  but  it 
is  one  reason  why  the  common  people  hear  it  and  use 
it  gladly.  Use  not  vain  repetitions  and  rhetorical  flour- 
ishes as  the  heathen  do.  In  all  your  public  prayers,  let 
your  yea  be  yea  and  your  nay,  nay. 

Pray  for  the  most  part  in  concrete  terms!  Let  your 
thanksgiving  and  your  adoration,  your  confession  and 
your  intercession  have  in  them  steadily  the  accents  of 
daily  life.  Pray  for  the  boys  and  girls — some  of  them, 
thank  heaven,  will  be  present  at  the  service  of  worship 
and  more  of  them  would  be  present  if  we  were  only  wiser 
in  our  mode  of  conducting  it.  Speak  of  them  as  "boys 
and  girls"  rather  than  as  "children."  When  a  boy  has 
gotten  out  of  knee  breeches  into  long  trousers  he  does  not 


218  THE  ART  OF  PREACHING 

like  the  idea  of  being  classified  as  "children."  Have  re- 
gard to  this  budding  preference  if  you  would  hold  the 
interest  and  win  the  heart  of  the  boy. 

Pray  for  the  fathers  and  mothers — their  hearts  are 
hungry  for  help  in  their  sacred  office  and  the  hearts  of  all 
sons  and  daughters  who  are  present  will  go  with  you  in 
that  gracious  petition.  Pray  for  those  who  are  sick  or 
in  sorrow — there  is  a  vast  amount  of  pain  and  grief  lying 
in  close  relation  to  any  number  of  those  people  there  be- 
fore you.  Pray  for  the  physicians  and  nurses  that  they 
may  be  wise  and  skillful,  that  they  may  be  thoughtful  and 
tender  in  their  ministry  of  healing !  Pray  for  those  who 
preach  the  gospel  and  for  those  who  sing  it  and  for  those 
who  hear  it.  Youi  brother  ministers,  your  choir,  and  all 
who  hope  for  profit  from  the  service  of  the  hour,  will  be 
grateful  for  such  a  request  on  their  behalf. 

Pray  for  the  public  school  teachers — they  are  set  for  the 
rising  or  falling  of  many  as  they  engage  in  their  vital 
task  of  forming  and  maturing  personality  in  all  those 
young  candidates  for  human  existence.  The  teachers 
themselves  will  be  helped  by  your  prayer  and  the  boys 
and  girls  who  are  not  eager  to  be  educated  when  they  go 
to  school,  who  are  accustomed  to  look  upon  the  teacher  as 
the  common  enemy,  may,  after  having  walked  in  that 
thick  darkness,  see  a  great  light. 

Pray  for  the  public  officials  of  your  city,  your  state, 
your  nation — not  always  for  the  same  officials  in  the  same 
set  of  words  every  Sunday  in  the  year,  but  let  your  prayer 
reveal  the  fact  that  you  feel  that  "the  powers  that  be  are 
ordained  of  God"  for  certain  high  ends  of  order  and  jus- 
tice and  that  you  would  invoke  upon  them  a  higher  con- 


THE  SETTING  OF  THE  SERMON  219 

secration.  Pray  for  employers  that  they  may  be  just, 
wise,  and  humane  in  their  use  of  the  five  talents  of  or- 
ganizing and  administrative  ability  which  God  has  given 
them,  remembering  all  the  while  that  they  too  have  a 
Master  in  Heaven.  Pray  for  those  who  toil  mainly  with 
their  hands  that  whatsoever  they  are  set  to  do,  they  may 
do  it  well,  not  as  time-servers,  wage-getters  or  men-pleasers 
but  heartily  as  unto  the  Lord. 

Pray  for  the  soldiers,  the  sailors,  the  policemen — they 
are  out  at  the  edge  doing  those  necessary  things  which  be- 
long to  the  security  of  so  many  of  our  valued  interests. 
Pray  for  the  tempted  and  the  discouraged,  the  puzzled, 
and  the  burdened — they  are  all  there  before  you  waiting 
for  that  friendly  lift  of  your  sympathy  and  of  your  faith- 
ful petition  on  their  behalf.  You  can  help  them  to  reach 
up  to  the  final  source  of  all  our  help. 

Pray  for  the  strangers  who  are  present,  who  have  never 
prayed  in  that  place  before!  Ask  that  this  first  prayer 
which  they  are  offering  now  may  bring  to  their  waiting 
hearts  an  answer  of  peace.  If  some  of  them  have  not  been, 
praying  up  to  that  point  but  merely  listening  to  you,  or 
perhaps  thinking  of  something  else,  that  request  of  yours 
reaching  out  after  them  in  personal  fashion  as  well  as 
Godward,  may  bring  them  in  and  you  will  know  that  they 
too  are  there  beside  you  on  their  knees  before  the  Throne 
of  Grace.  Pray  for  those  who  travel  by  land  or  by  sea, 
that  God  may  give  them  safe  conduct  and  bring  them  to 
the  desired  place  with  a  fresh  sense  of  gratitude  for  all 
His  goodness. 

You  can  well  afford  to  pray  frequently  for  these  various 
forms  of  hum^in  need  which  are  altogether  familiar.    The 


220  THE  ART  OF  PREACHING 

man  who  is  forever  striving  to  get  out  of  the  beaten  track 
in  his  devotions,  who  is  so  eager  to  say  something  fresh 
and  original  to  the  Lord  Sunday  after  Sunday,  is  very 
likely  to  find  himself  walking  alone.  The  "beaten  path" 
became  beaten  because  so  many  heavy-hearted  people  have 
walked  and  are  even  now  walking  there.  The  very  bare- 
ness of  the  beaten  track  is  its  glory. 

If  your  head  and  your  heart  are  actually  among  the 
stars  when  you  pray,  you  can  afford  to  keep  your  feet 
firmly  on  the  ground  as  you  take  up  in  simple,  homely 
fashion,  one  after  another,  from  week  to  week,  these  many 
and  varied  earthly  needs.  Let  the  profound  devotion, 
the  heavenward  reach  and  grasp  of  your  prayer  be  in  your 
tone  of  voice  and  in  the  spirit  which  breathes  through 
your  petitions !  Then  make  the  language  and  the  objects 
of  your  requests  as  simple  and  natural  as  you  know  how 
to  make  them.  If  a  son  ask  his  father  for  bread  or  fish 
or  an  egg — the  plain  ordinary  staples  which  meet  our 
everyday  need — he  will  not  be  sent  away  with  a  stone. 

Here  then  are  the  main  factors  in  that  service  of  wor- 
ship in  our  non-liturgical  churches  which  are  to  furnish  a 
worthy  setting  for  the  message  you  bring  from  your  Father 
in  Heaven  to  the  souls  of  those  people  for  whom  you  are 
to  give  account !  If  you  and  your  organist,  your  choir 
and  your  congregation,  can  order  and  render  the  music 
aright :  if  you  will  learn  how  to  read  your  Bible  in  "the 
ears  of  men  and  how  to  lead  them  in  their  approach  to 
God  by  your  honest  and  faithful  prayer,  you  will  find 
that  by  the  time  you  reach  the  utterance  of  your  sermon 
a  favoring  atmosphere  will  have  been  created  in  the  church. 
The  very  air  of  the  place  will  "nimbly  and  sweetly  recom- 


THE  SETTING  OF  THE  SERMON  221 

mend  itself"  to  the  high  task  to  be  performed.  Those 
truths  of  yours  will  mount  up  with  wings  like  eagles; 
they  will  run  upon  the  errands  for  which  God  has  sent 
them  and  not  grow  weary;  they  will  move  in  and  out 
among  the  pews  and  among  the  needs  of  all  those  people 
there  before  you,  and  not  faint. 


VIII 

THE   SOUL,   OF   THE   SERMON 

IN^  the  preceding  lectures  I  have  been  dwelling  on  the 
choice  of  texts  and  the  writing  of  introductions,  on 
the  assembling  of  material  and  the  development  of 
plans,  on  the  art  of  expression  and  the  mode  of  delivery, 
as  if  you  had  to  do  it  all.  But  all  this  detailed  prepara- 
tion, taken  by  itself,  is  mere  dust  of  the  ground.  It  has 
little  worth  until  the  Spirit  of  the  Lord  shall  move  upon 
the  face  of  it  and  breathe  into  it  the  breath  of  his  own 
mighty  life,  bestowing  upon  your  sermon  a  living  soul. 

The  preaching  of  a  real  sermon  is  no  mere  human  trans- 
action. In  the  very  nature  of  the  case,  it  caunot  be.  There 
are  at  least  three  living  factors  involved  in  it — the 
preacher  himself,  the  people  who  listen,  and  the  Spirit  of 
Him  who  has  all  those  higher  values  which  are  involved 
in  the  process,  within  his  holy  keeping.  The  prophets 
and  apostles  spake  of  old  "as  they  were  moved  by  the 
Holy  Ghost"  and  the  same  high  privilege,  according  to 
the  proportion  of  our  faith,  is  open  to  each  one  of  us. 

We  are  none  of  us  unmindful  of  the  fact  that  this  other 
and  higher  form  of  energy  is  to  be  reckoned  with  steadily. 
There  are  psychic  forces  at  work  in  every  preaching  serv- 
ice which  operate  quite  independently  of  the  will  of  the 
preacher.  They  operate  upon  the  minds  and  hearts  of 
the  people  who  listen.  They  operate  also  upon  the  mind 
and  heart  of  the  man  who  speaks.     The  divine  impinges. 


THE  SOUL  OF  THE  SERMON  223 

all  the  while  upon  tlie  human.  Whether  it  is  there  for 
furtherance  and  aid,  or  for  opposition  and  hindrance,  de- 
pends entirely  upon  the  quality  and  the  attitude  of  the 
human.    But  in  any  event  it  is  there. 

'"Work  out  your  own  salvation"  then  as  preachers. 
Work  with  all  your  might,  as  if  everything  depended 
upon  you.  Yet  all  the  while,  know  full  well  that  unless 
God  is  working  within  you  to  will  and  to  accomplish  His 
good  pleasure,  your  preaching  will  be  vain.  Work  as  if 
you  had  to  do  it  all !  Then  pray  and  trust  as  if  God  had 
to  do  it  all.  You  will  find  that  the  correlation  of  those 
two  sets  of  forces  will  make  your  preaching  spiritually 
effective. 

The  same  blending  of  energies,  human  and  divine, 
though  less  apparent  in  many  other  fields,  is  present  every- 
where. If  a  man  is  farming,  he  may  plant  and  his  asso- 
ciate may  water — this  is  all  they  can  do — God  gives  the 
increase.  When  men  plow  and  plant  with  all  possible  skill 
and  fidelity,  they  are  still  profoundly  conscious  of  their 
utter  dependence  upon  the  latent  energies  of  the  soil  and 
the  sunshine,  the  rain  and  the  dew.  One  reason  perhaps 
why  country-bred  boys,  other  things  being  equal,  make 
the  best  preachers  is  because  they  have  had  their  feet  in 
the  soil.  They  have  been  constantly  in  touch  with  living, 
growing  things.  They  have  been  schooled  in  the  fine  art 
of  cooperation  with  those  energies  which  are  beyond  all 
human  control. 

''The  earth  is  given  to  the  children  of  men,"  the  psalm- 
ist said,  "but  the  heavens  are  the  Lord's."  You  may 
sometimes  see  a  plant  trying  to  grow  under  a  shed.  It 
has    soil   enough — it   has   eight   thousand    perpendicular 


224  THE  ART  OF  PREACHING 

miles  of  earth,  more  or  less,  directly  under  it.  It  may 
have  water  enough,  for  some  man  may  pour  a  bucketful 
of  water  upon  it  every  morning.  It  may  be  that  the  hin- 
dering weeds  have  all  been  removed,  allowing  it  a  complete 
monopoly  of  its  bit  of  soil.  But  still  it  does  not  grow. 
It  does  not  grow  because  it  needs  the  open  sky,  the  sun- 
shine, the  rain  and  the  dew  that  it  may  indeed  come  to  its 
own  best  and  utter  itself  in  some  splendid  flower.  It  has 
the  earth  and  all  that  the  children  of  men  can  do  on  its 
behalf,  but  it  needs  also  the  heavens  which  are  the  Lord's. 

You  cannot  preach  under  a  shed.  If  your  own  quality 
of  inner  life,  your  own  lack  of  trust  in  spiritual  forces, 
your  own  careless  indifference  to  those  lines  of  spiritual 
culture  which  mean  steady,  vital  fellowship  with  the  Un- 
seen, are  such  that  you  are  roofed  in,  then  your  preaching 
will  be  feeble.  It  will  be  for  all  the  world  like  one  of 
those  yellow,  sickly-looking,  potato  vines  growing  in  the 
cellar.  You  need  both  the  common  earth  and  the  open 
sky  for  the  complete  effectiveness  of  your  work  as  preach- 
ers of  a  divine  Gospel. 

The  recognition  of  the  necessity  for  this  cooperation 
with  an  unseen  world  is  clearly  brought  out  in  those  words 
from  Deuteronomy;  "The  land  ye  go  to  possess  is  not  as 
the  land  of  Egypt,  from  whence  ye  came  out,  where  thou 
sowest  thy  seed  and  waterest  it  with  thy  foot,  as  a  garden 
of  herbs."  In  the  Nile  Valley  the  utilization  of  the  an- 
nual overflow  of  the  great  River  for  the  irrigating  of  the 
fields,  enabled  the  farmers  to  have  practically  all  of  the 
elements  of  agricultural  success  under  their  own  control. 
They  sowed  their  seed  and  then  with  bared  feet  they 
pumped  the  water  from  the  River  and  made  tiny  chan- 


THE  SOUL  OF  THE  SERMON  225 

nels  for  it  to  irrigate  the  growing  grain.  In  Egypt  the 
farmers  did  not  feel  the  sense  of  an  immediate  depend- 
ence upon  the  upper  world. 

"But  the  land  thou  goest  in  to  possess,  is  a  land  of  hills 
and  of  valleys" — ^where  irrigation  would  be  difficult  if 
not  impossible:  "  a  land  that  drinketh  water  of  the  rain 
of  Heaven;  a  land  which  the  Lord  thy  God  careth  for; 
and  the  eyes  of  the  Lord  thy  God  are  always  upon  it 
from  the  beginning  of  the  year,  even  unto  the  end  of  the 
year."  The  steady  dependence  of  the  farmer  in  Pales- 
tine upon  that  upper  world  from  which  the  land  must 
drink  water  from  the  rain  of  heaven  in  order  to  become  fer- 
tile, developed  in  him  a  profound  sense  of  reliance  upon 
the  unseen  energies  of  the  Lord. 

Your  own  land  of  promise  as  preachers  of  the  Gospel 
is  "a  land  of  hills  and  of  valleys."  It  is  a  land  that 
drinketh  water  of  the  rain  of  Heaven.  If  it  fails  to  draw 
its  supplies  from  above,  it  soon  dries  up.  The  ensuing 
drought  destroys  all  the  spiritual  harvests  you  are  sent 
to  produce.  It  is  a  land  which  the  Lord  thy  God  careth 
for  and  the  eyes  of  the  Lord  thy  God  are  always  upon 
it  from  the  beginning  of  your  task  even  unto  the  end 
of  it. 

In  order  to  secure  this  superhuman  aid  it  is  not  enough 
that  the  minister  should  merely  live  a  decent,  respectable, 
upright  life.  This  is  to  be  taken  for  granted.  And  such 
a  mode  of  life  in  the  ministry  is  all  but  universal,  foe  the 
clergyman  knows  full  well  that  lying,  stealing,  unclean- 
ness,  or  any  other  coarse,  moral  lapse  would  end  him.  The 
ministers  of  Christ  are  very  rarely  overtaken  by  the  coarse 
sins  of  the  flesh.    It  is  not  enough  that  a  minister  should 


226  THE  ART  OF  PREACHING 

merely  keep  up  the  outward  habits  of  devotion — this  also 
may  be  taken  for  granted.  The  preacher  of  a  divine  Gos- 
pel must  so  live  as  to  keep  alive  and  sensitive  within  his 
own  soul  that  sense  of  steady  cooperation  with  the  Unseen. 

Rubinstein  used  to  say  that  if  he  stopped  practicing 
for  one  day,  he  noticed  it  in  his  playing.  If  he  stopped 
for  a  week  his  intimate  friends  noticed  it.  If  he  stopped 
for  a  month  the  public  noticed  it.  The  subtle,  nervous 
reactions  which  were  needed  if  he  would  take  the  notes 
on  the  score  in  the  piece  of  music  before  him,  and  utter 
them  worthily  through  those  ivory  keys,  were  dependent 
upon  that  steady  practice  which  kept  him  in  condition. 

What  of  the  man  who  looks  upon  the  realities  of  the 
spiritual  world  and  undertakes  to  utter  them?  If  he 
becomes  spiritually  indifferent  for  a  day,  he  will  notice^ 
it  in  his  preaching — he  will  if  he  is  morally  sensitive 
and  sternly  honest  with  himself.  If  he  is  careless  for  a 
week,  his  wife  and  his  deacons  will  miss  something.  If 
he  is  careless  for  a  month,  the  outside  world  will  feel  the 
absence  of  that  subtle,  commanding  accent  which  belongs 
to  spiritual  veracity,  to  religious  genuineness.  If  you 
propose  to  preach,  you  will  have  to  be  the  real  thing.  No 
shams,  no  make-believes,  no  perfunctory  machines  need 
apply. 

The  young  men  in  the  ministry  might  just  as  well 
realize  at  the  start  what  they  are  in  for.  The  work  of 
preaching  is  the  most  exacting  task  on  earth.  It  lays  un- 
der commission  all  the  best  powers  of  body,  mind  and 
spirit.  It  loads  men  with  burdens  not  easy  to  be  borne. 
If  we  were  not  steadily  reinforced  and  empowered  from 
^n   inexhaustible   source  of  spiritual  energy,   we   would 


THE  SOUL  OF  THE  SERMON  227 

all  of  us  despair  of  maintaining  any  sort  of  genuine  effi- 
ciency in  such  a  high  calling.  — - 

In  your  regular  work,  week  after  week,  you  are  called 
upon  as  your  Master  was  before  you,  to  see  Heaven  open 
and  the  angels  of  God  ascending  and  descending  on  their 
errands  of  spiritual  ministry.  You  are  expected  to  live 
in  constant  communication  with  that  unseen  world,  where 
the  messengers  of  the  Most  High  are  coming  and  going 
upon  those  august  transactions  which  have  to  do  with  the 
renewing,  the  maturing,  and  the  enrichment  of  spiritual 
life.  You  therefore  must  of  necessity,  beyond  all  other 
men,  have  an  open  vision  and  a  clear,  definite  sense  of 
your  own  cooperation  with  that  upper  world  of  unseen 
forces. 

It  is  the  divine  element  in  preaching  which  makes  it 
vital.  In  the  words  of  Nathaniel  J.  Burton,  "The  sermon 
y  gets  to  be  a  sermon,  and  is  saved  from  being  a  lecture, 
by  being  made  and  delivered  in  the  Holy  Ghost."  The 
older  Methodist  preachers,  who  formerly  traveled  their 
circuits,  upon  reaching  one  of  their  appointments  would 
often  go  out  behind  the  church  among  the  trees  and  pray, 
as  they  said,  "for  the  power."  We  can  trace  more  ac- 
curately than  they  did  perhaps  the  underlying  psycholog- 
ical principles  governing  the  experience  they  sought. 
But  however  we  may  phrase  it,  the  spiritual  effort  put 
forth  by  those  men  in  seeking  "the  power"  gave  them  the 
sense  of  an  effective  fellowship  with  the  divine.  When 
Frederick  Denison  Maurice  preached  in  London  to  a  con- 
gregation where  the  educated  and  the  cultured  touched 
elbows  with  the  simple,  working  people,  the  universal 
testimony  was  that  there  was  throughout  the  service  "the 


228  THE  ART  OF  PREACHING 

sense  of  something  which  was  not  of  this  world."  It  was 
that  mysterious  "something"  which  gave  the  service  its 
power  of  spiritual  appeal. 

You  will  naturally  remember  how  the  importance  of 
seeking  the  cooperation  of  this  divine  element  in  preach- 
ing is  urged  upon  the  servants  of  Christ  in  the  New  Tes- 
tament. "Ye  shall  receive  power/' — dunamiSj  dynamic, 
dynamite,  tremendous  and  mysterious  energy!  Ye  shall 
receive  tremendous  and  mysterious  energy  "after  the  Holy 
Spirit  has  come  upon  you."  "Tarry  ye  in  the  city  of 
Jerusalem,"  in  the  place  of  your  former  attachment  and 
devotion,  "until  ye  are  endued  with  power,"  that  is  to  say 
dynamic,  "from  on  high."  "My  speech  and  my  preaching 
was  not  in  the  enticing  words  of  man's  wisdom,"  Paul 
said,  "but  in  demonstration  of  the  spirit  and  of  power" — 
in  demonstration  of  spiritual  dynamic.  "I  am  not 
ashamed  of  the  Gospel  of  Christ,  for  it  is  the  power," — 
the  dynamite, — "of  God,  unto  salvation  unto  every  one 
who  believes."  "God  has  not  given  us  the  spirit  of  fear, 
but  of  power,  and  of  love  and  of  a  sound  mind," — energy, 
intelligence,  and  character, — "that  your  faith  should  not 
stand  in  the  wisdom  of  men,  but  in  the  power"  (in  the 
dynamic)  "of  God."  It  is  this  dynamic  aspect  of  the 
work  of  the  Holy  Spirit,  a  power  infinite  in  its  possibil- 
ities which  makes  the  profoundest  appeal  to  the  human 
heart. 

One  great  office  of  preaching  is  to  permit,  to  encourage 
and  to  aid  the  functioning  and  the  energizing  of  the  divine 
Spirit,  both  within  the  soul  of  the  man  who  speaks  and 
within  the  souls  of  those  who  hear.     When  this  process 


THE  SOUL  OF  THE  SERMON  229 

is  In  operation,  we  have  preaching.  ISTothing  less  than 
that  is  preaching.  Men  will  come,  "to  hear  you  preach," 
as  they  say.  That  may  completely  describe  the  mood  in 
which  they  come.  But  if  you  do  your  work  well,  before 
you  are  through,  they  will  see  no  man,  neither  you  nor 
any  other  man,  but  Jesus  only.  You  can  only  accomplish 
that  result  as  you  become  conscious  yourself  of  the  divine 
Spirit  present  and  energetic  in  all  your  work. 

This  divine  element  is  your  distinctive  asset.  If  you 
try  to  compete  with  the  writers  of  editorials  in  the  news- 
papers or  with  the  magazine  writers,  in  clever  literary 
production,  they  will  beat  you.  They  have  more  leisure 
than  you  can  possibly  have  as  an  active  pastor.  They  do 
not  undertake  to  produce  in  any  one  week  as  much  as 
would  be  found  in  two  good  sermons.  There  is  open  to 
them  a  wider  range  of  topics  for  suggestive  treatment. 
They  may  write  on  religion  also  if  they  choose  and  on 
every  other  conceivable  thing  under  the  sun.  You  can- 
not successfully  run  races  with  them  in  furnishing  popular 
literature. 

If  you  undertake  to  compete  with  the  theater  or  with 
the  vaudeville  show,  or  the  moving  pictures  in  furnishing 
entertainment,  you  will  be  left  behind.  The  amusement 
venders  have  vast  amounts  of  money  to  spend.  They  have 
been  studying  this  entertainment  business  for  years  while 
you  were  studying  your  Bible,  your  church  history  and 
all  the  rest.  Their  mastery  of  that  subject  will  make 
your  knowledge  of  it  seem  like  the  crude  notions  of  an 
amateur.  They  have  all  the  appliances  known  to  modem 
science.    There  is  a  wide  range  of  activity  open  to  them, 


230  THE  ART  OF  PREACHING 

permissible  in  the  theater,  but  not  in  the  place  of  worship. 
You  cannot  in  your  sermons  compete  with  them  in  fur- 
nishing people  with  entertainment. 

If  you  undertake  to  run  races  with  the  lecture  platform 
in  giving  intellectual  shows,  you  will  be  worsted.  The 
popular  lecturer  is  at  liberty  to  put  all  he  knows  into  one 
lecture  if  he  chooses  and  then  deliver  it  a  hundred  or  a 
thousand  times  as  opportunity  offers,  until  he  has  brought 
it  to  the  highest  state  of  perfection  in  literary  style  and 
in  forcible  delivery  of  which  he  may  be  capable.  You 
cannot  do  that  with  the  steady  demand  made  upon  you 
that  you  should  preach  twice  every  week  in  the  same 
church. 

If  you  undertake  to  compete  with  the  authors  of  books, 
they  will  surpass  you  in  sound  knowledge  and  in  well- 
reasoned  statement.  The  author  of  a  book  may  take  five 
years  or  ten  years  to  produce  a  single  volume,  while  the 
moment  you  have  pronounced  the  benediction  on  Sunday 
night  you  feel  almost  compelled  to  hurry  back  to  your 
study  to  prepare  two  more  sermons  for  next  Sunday. 

In  your  own  congregation  there  will  be  men  who  are 
your  equals,  and  in  all  probability  your  superiors,  in  many 
lines  of  knowledge.  The  business  men  will  know  more 
about  business  than  you  do.  The  scientific  men  will  un- 
derstand the  methods  and  findings  of  modern  science  as 
you  do  not.  The  politicians  will  understand  all  the  moves 
and  gestures  in  that  game  more  thoroughly  than  you  do. 
You  cannot  possibly  instruct  those  men  in  their  own 
specialties. 

And  as  a  matter  of  fact,  those  men  do  not  come  to  your 
.church  for  instruction  in  Economics  or  in  Biology  or  in 


THE  SOUL  OF  THE  SERMON  231 

Civics.  They  are  disappointed  when  you  undertake  to 
palm  off  on  them  an  inadequate  presentation  of  their  own 
specialties.  The  President  of  the  University  of  Califor- 
nia, some  years  ago,  was  an  accomplished  Greek  scholar 
long  before  he  went  to  Berkeley.  He  was  accustomed 
to  read  the  orations  of  Demosthenes  and  the  plays 
of  iEschylus  in  the  original  as  a  pastime.  He  attended 
habitually  one  of  the  churches  in  that  University  town. 
He  had  for  his  pastor  at  one  time  a  minister  who  some- 
times undertook  to  air  his  Greek  in  the  presence  of  this 
past  master  of  the  Greek  language.  And  the  result  was 
that  at  all  such  times  the  poor  parson  utterly  failed  to 
furnish  the  college  president  what  he  most  desired  to  re- 
ceive in  coming  to  church. 

You  are  not  there  primarily  to  impart  larger  stores  o 
of  learning  to  men  touching  their  own  particular  lines  of 
interest.  You  are  not  there  to  repeat  some  lesson  which 
you  may  have  learned  out  of  a  book.  You  are  there 
chiefly  to  impart  spiritual  life.  Your  sermon  if  it  is 
really  worthy  of  being  preached  has  grown  in  direct 
fashion  out  of  your  own  spiritual  life.  If  you  are  preach- 
ing on  faith,  you  preach  as  a  man  who  cherishes  faith 
himself  and  has  put  it  to  the  test  on  a  score  of  hard  fields. 
If  you  preach  on  hope,  you  preach  as  a  man  who  is  "saved 
by  hope."  If  you  discourse  upon  love,  you  do  it  out  of 
a  heart  honestly  controlled  by  love  for  God  and  for  man. 
If  you  are  proclaiming  reconciliation  to  God  through 
Christ,  you  do  it  as  a  man  who  has  himself  been  recon- 
ciled and  has  found  that  peace  which  transcends  all  human 
understanding.  If  you  speak  of  moral  renewal,  you  do 
it  from  your  own  deep  sense  of  that  process  already  begun 


232  THE  ART  OF  PREACHING 

and  in  process  of  completion  in  the  depths  of  your  own 
soul.  When  you  preach  on  temptation  and  the  way  'of 
escape,  it  is  the  word  of  a  man  who  has  fought  the  wild 
beasts  at  Ephesus  and  vanquished  them  through  grace 
given  him  from  on  high. 

Here  you  will  find  the  hidings  of  your  power!  Here 
you  will  discover  your  main  field  of  usefulness !  The 
more  you  can  speak  out  of  the  abundance  of  the  heart, 
the  more  surely  will  your  message  find  its  way  to  the 
hearts  of  other  men.  Herein  lies  that  essential  soul  of 
every  sermon  which  lifts  it  out  of  the  category  of  an 
Academic  performance  and  makes  of  it  a  spiritual  exer- 
cise. Your  truths  are  not  dealt  with  after  the  method  of 
the  learned  disquisition  but  as  experiences  to  be  imparted 
in  words  which  are  "spirit  and  life." 

When  you  enter  your  pulpit  you  are  there  to  make  peo- 
ple feel  the  presence  of  God.  And  here  you  have  a  field 
all  to  yourself,  with  little  or  no  competition.  The  news- 
papers and  the  theaters,  the  popular  lectures  and  the  larger 
part  of  the  books  men  read,  do  not  undertake  to  make  peo- 
ple immediately  conscious  of  the  presence  of  God.  They 
do  not  have  as  their  main  office  the  direct  impartation  of 
spiritual  life. 

In  undertaking  this  high  office  you  do  not  think  of  your- 
self then  primarily  as  a  lecturer  on  theology  or  even  upon 
religion.  Men  do  not  send  for  the  doctor  to  come  and  tell 
them  all  he  knows  about  anatomy  or  materia  medica., 
They  want  him  to  come  and  set  the  broken  bone  or  to 
carry  the  patient  through  some  serious  illness.  And  you 
regard  yourself  as  one  commissioned  to  bring  the  people 
^into  such  relations  with  the  healing  agencies  that  have 


THE  SOUL  OF  THE  SERMON  233 

to  do  with  spiritual  health  that  they  will  be  steadily 
getting  better  under  your  treatment.  You  do  not  try 
to  tell  them  how  much  you  know,  but  to  impart  life 
and  to  put  them  in  touch  with  the  source  of  life.  This 
ability  is  your  best  asset,  I  repeat,  and  it  can  only  result 
from  real  and  constant  transactions  between  you  and 
your  Lord. 

There  is  no  other  element  in  preaching  which  can  show 
such  a  measure  of  demonstrated  efficiency  as  the  presence 
of  this  spiritual  quality.  It  gets  results.  It  gets  real 
results  and  lasting  results.  The  style  of  speech  which 
never  goes  beyond  a  certain  pleasing  and  popular  form 
of  eloquence  may  be  utterly  devoid  of  any  character-mak- 
ing influence.  Moses  was  not  an  orator — he  was  "slow  of 
speech,"  he  said,  and  had  a  clumsy  tongue.  Aaron  was 
an  orator.  He  was  a  silver-tongued  orator,  a  spell-binder, 
a  fine  public  speaker.  But  Moses  received  the  word  of 
the  Lord  and  wrote  it  on  the  face  of  Israel's  life  to  stay, 
while  Aaron,  the  silver-tongued  orator,  merely  made  a 
golden  calf  and  caused  the  people  to  worship  that  popular 
idol  to  their  own  hurt. 

When  I  was  a  pastor  in  Boston  there  was  a  minister  in 
one  of  the  churches  there  whose  name  was  Brooke  Here- 
ford. He  was  an  Englishman,  with  all  the  quiet  dignity 
of  the  English  clergy.  There  was  no  more  of  sensation 
in  his  methods  than  there  was  about  Bunker  Hill  Monu- 
ment. He  was  simple  as  a  child  in  his  mode  of  speech. 
He  was  a  man  who  was  almost  shy  in  manner,  yet  with  a 
warm  heart  hidden  away  under  that  reserve.  But  his 
church  was  always  full  and  when  he  preached  at  Harvard 
University,  more  students  came  to  see  him  during  his 


234  THE  ART  OF  PREACHING 

consultation  hours  than  came  to  see  any  other  one  " 
preacher,  with  the  single  exception  of  Phillips  Brooks.  I 
talked  once  with  a  traveling  man,  who  was  thoroughly 
worldly  and  careless  in  his  own  speech  and  mode  of  liv- 
ing. He  told  me  that  whenever  he  had  a  Sunday  in  Bos- 
ton he  always  made  it  a  point  to  hear  Brooke  Hereford. 
I  asked  him  why  he  enjoyed  going  there.  His  reply  was, 
"Well,  I  hardly  know — perhaps  it  is  because  he  is  so  rev- 
erent and  so  real  in  his  religion.  It  does  me  good  for 
weeks  just  to  have  heard  him  pray." 

The  presence  or  the  absence  of  that  divine  "something" 
really  determines  the  question  of  spiritual  efficiency.  The 
autobiography  of  President  Charles  G.  Finney  of  Oberlin 
l-^is  as  plain  as  homespun  in  its  literary  quality  but  in  its 
inspirational  quality  it  is  a  book  in  a  thousand.  I  made  it 
a  practice  to  read  it  through  regularly  once  every  year 
for  the  first  fifteen  years  of  my  own  ministry.  And  each 
reading  sent  me  back  to  my  task  with  a  new  measure  of 
spiritual  passion  burning  hot  within  me.  He  was  so 
conscious  of  this  divine  enduement  that  when  he  uttered 
his  message  "his  words  seemed  literally  to  cut  like  knives" 
as  they  fell  upon  the  consciences  of  those  who  heard. 
Strong  men  were  moved  there  in  their  pews,  without  any 
of  the  machinery  of  the  modern  revival,  to  cry  out  for 
the  divine  mercy  to  relieve  their  burdened  and  guilty 
hearts. 

President  Finney  was  a  man  meager  in  his  own  emo- 
tional life.     His  training  as  a  lawyer  had  made  him  se- 
verely plain  and  logical  in  his  mode  of  stating  truth.    He 
employed,  as  we  know  from  his  published  sermons  and  , 
lectures,  scarcely  any  of  the  beauties  of  literary  expres-  . 


THE  SOUL  OF  THE  SERMON  235 

sion.     But  he  was  a  man  who  preached  the  Gospel  of 
Christ  in  the  power  of  the  divine  Spirit. 

And  to  this  day  the  wholesome  effects  of  those  great  re- 
vivals of  religion  which  he  conducted  can  be  read  as  from 
an  open  book  in  the  higher  life  of  whole  communities  in 
"Western  I^ew  York  and  in  Pennsylvania  and  in  that  part 
of  Ohio  known  as  the  Western  Keserve.  His  sermon 
showed  a  body  of  truth,  simple  and  rugged  as  a  rule,  but 
real — the  power  of  it  lay  in  the  fact  that  it  was  possessed 
by  a  living  soul  through  the  divine  inbreathing. 

Would  that  a  double  portion  of  the  spirit  of  that  mod- 
ern Elijah,  now  caught  up  to  heaven,  might  be  upon  all 
the  young  Elishas !  It  would  equip  them  as  nothing  else 
can  for  the  high  and  hard  tasks  awaiting  them  in  this 
hurried,  intricate,  baffling  life  which  they  are  sent  to 
possess  in  the  name  of  Jehovah,  the  Lord  of  Hosts. 

If  you  seek  and  secure  this  divine  enduement  of  power 
you  will  rejoice  in  your  work.  In  the  long  run  now  as 
then  the  joy  of  the  Lord  must  be  your  strength.  If  your 
preaching  is  a  burden  to  you ;  if  you  are  doing  it  because 
you  must  do  something  in  order  to  live ;  or  if  your  work 
is  done  in  a  mechanical  sort  of  way  much  as  a  man  might 
get  out  fence  posts,  or  cut  cord  wood ;  or  if  you  are  preach- 
ing mainly  because  you  find  a  certain  intellectual  satisfac- 
tion in  standing  in  a  public  place,  the  admired  of  all  be- 
holders, then  you  will  fail.  And  you  ought  to  fail.  You 
cannot  succeed  except  as  your  heart  is  joyfully  set  upon 
the  deeper,  spiritual  values  bound  up  with  this  work  of 
preaching. 

May  you  learn  to  preach  as  the  birds  sing !  They  can- 
not help  it.     They  are  so  chock  full  of  music  clear  up  to 


236  THE  ART  OV  PREACHING 

their  throats  that  if  thej  did  not  sing,  they  would  burst. 
You  ought  to  reach  the  point  where  you  will  utter  those 
visions  and  dreams  of  better  things,  those  insights  of  yours 
into  human  need  and  those  broad,  rich  sympathies  with 
all  who  fail,  those  experiences  wherein  you  laid  firm  hold 
of  God's  grace  for  your  own  eternal  salvation,  simply 
because,  like  Luther  of  old,  you  cannot  otherwise.  You 
feel  the  deep  joy  of  it  walking  and  leaping  and  praising 
God  in  your  own  soul  until  like  the  lame  man  who  was 
healed  you  must  enter  into  the  temple  and  utter  it  for 
the  help  of  your  fellow  beings. 

In  the  city  and  in  the  country  alike,  you  will  find  great 
masses  of  human  life,  sordid,  narrow,  stupid,  mean.  If 
you  yourself  were  sordid  and  narrow,  stupid  and  mean, 
you  would  have  nothing  for  those  poor  lives  thus  caught 
and  held.  But  you  have  been  apprehended,  seized  upon, 
caught  up,  ennobled  by  Christ  Jesus  so  that  you  have 
something  for  them — something  which  is  literally  price- 
less. By  the  power  of  what  you  have  seen  and  felt,  by  the 
power  of  what  you  are  able  to  declare  in  the  Lord, 
you  are  made  competent  to  transform  those  masses 
of  life,  until  they  become  radiant  tabernacles  of  the 
Spirit. 

You  are  sent  to  do  what  the  great  poets  do  for  us  all. 
They  dream  for  us  and  they  sing  for  us.  They  gather 
up  the  plain  materials  of  our  lives  and  make  them  glorious 
by  the  profounder  interpretations  they  put  upon  them. 
They  cause  these  ordinary  experiences  of  human  life  to 
shine  like  the  sun  in  his  strength  by  the  finer  meanings 
they  infuse  into  them.  You  are  to  do  just  that  for  the 
working,  struggling,  burdened  and  ofttimes  defeated  peo- 


THE  SOUL  OF  THE  SERMON  237 

pie,  by  the  finer  interpretations  you  place  upon  the  com- 
monplace activities  of  everyday  life. 

"Fill  the  waterpots  with  "water,"  Jesus  said  to  the  serv- 
ants at  the  wedding  in  Cana  of  Galilee.  "And  they  filled 
them  to  the  brim."  It  was  a  commonplace  service  they 
rendered — any  one  could  have  done  it,  any  one  who  had 
feet  and  hands.  But  when  these  servants  did  it  at  his 
word  and  under  his  eye,  and  did  it  thoroughly,  filling  the 
waterpots  to  the  brim,  that  commonplace  action  at  once 
took  on  a  higher  meaning  and  a  richer  value. 

The  unnamed,  unknown  servants  were  making  wine  for 
the  wedding.  They  were  saving  a  bride  and  her  parents 
from  the  mortification  consequent  upon  such  a  disaster 
as  having  the  refreshments  give  out  at  her  marriage.  They 
were  adding  such  pleasure  to  the  occasion  that  the  ruler 
of  the  feast  declared  that  he  had  never  tasted  such  joy 
before.  And  they  were  also  enabling  the  Master  to  so 
^'manifest  his  glory"  that  "his  disciples  believed  on  him." 
They  had  believed  on  him  before  for  they  were  already 
"his  disciples,"  but  in  the  joy  of  that  occasion  their  belief 
grew  rich  and  glad.  You  in  turn  must  learn  how  to 
change  the  water  of  humdrum  activity  into  wine,  how  to 
lift  the  prose  of  ordinary  experience  into  the  poetry  of 
spiritual  achievement. 

In  order  to  do  this,  you  will  need  every  now  and  then 
to  step  back  from  your  work  for  an  hour  that  you  may 
see  it  aright.  It  is  what  the  painter  is  constantly  doing. 
He  moves  back  from  his  canvas  so  that  he  may  see,  not 
dabs  of  paint  which  is  all  that  any  one  can  see  when  his 
eyes  are  close  to  the  picture — he  moves  away  that  he  may 
see  the  vision  of  beauty  which  filled  his  soul  taking  shape 


238  THE  'ART  OF  PREACHINa 

there  on  his  easel.  Step  back  from  your  task  that  you 
may  see  it  in  its  true  perspective!  Step  back  that  you 
may  see  it  in  all  its  relations  perpendicular  as  well  as 
horizontal.  Step  back  and  recognize  those  deeper  impli- 
cations which  are  hidden  away  beneath  the  surface. 

You  will  inevitably  find  in  your  ministry  a  great  deal 
of  routine  and  monotony.  You  will  feel  many  a  time  and 
for  days  together  that  you  are  only  an  obscure  servant 
filling  waterpots  with  water  and  when  they  are  empty 
filling  them  over  again.  Human  life  taken  in  the  large 
is  very  much  like  that.  It  is  lived  for  the  most  part  on 
"Main  Street"  rather  than  upon  "The  Avenue."  The 
housekeeper  makes  up  beds  which  have  already  been  made 
up  a  hundred  times  and  they  will  all  have  to  be  made  up 
again  to-morrow  morning.  She  washes  dishes  which  have 
already  been  washed  a  thousand  times  and  most  of  them 
will  have  to  be  washed  again  after  the  next  meal.  The 
business  man  goes  down  to  his  store  to  discuss  sales  and 
figure  on  contracts  and  write  letters,  the  same  sort  of 
sales,  contracts  and  letters  to  which  he  has  been  giving 
attention  for  years.  The  teacher  enters  her  school  room 
and  faces  forty  more  restless  urchins,  the  same  sort  of 
urchins  she  has  been  facing  ever  since  she  was  elected 
to  her  present  position,  as  unresponsive  and  intractable 
oftentimes  as  a  lot  of  wild  cats.  The  minister  goes  into 
his  study  to  prepare  two  more  sermons  for  next  Sundays — 
he  has  been  busy  for  the  last  twenty  years  "getting  ready 
for  next  Sunday"  and  here  he  is  doing  it  again!  And 
when  he  stands  up  to  preach,  he  is  conscious  that  seventy- 
five  thousand  other  ministers  in  this  broad  land  are  do- 
ing the  same  thing  in  much  the  same  way. 


THE  SOUL  OF  THE  SERMON  239 

We  are  all  like  the  little  switch  engines  down  here  in 
the  freight  yard.  We  are  never  hitched  up  to  the  "Over- 
land Limited"  to  draw  it  swiftly  and  surely  across  the 
Continent  until  it  lands  its  passengers  at  the  Golden  Gate. 
We  are  simply  puffing  to  and  fro  within  the  limits  of  a 
narrow  yard,  doing  those  plain  things  which  somebody 
has  to  do  if  the  great  common  traffic  of  human  existence 
is  to  be  carried  along.  But  when  we  perform  our  tasks 
at  the  command  of  Christ,  when  we  link  them  up  with 
that  purpose  of  His  which  reaches  from  the  hour  when 
the  morning  stars  sang  together  on  to  the  hour  when  a 
multitude  which  no  man  can  number  will  drink  their 
wine  new  with  Him  in  the  kingdom  of  God,  we  manifest 
His  glory  so  that  the  world  believes  on  Him.  And  that 
sublime  result  is  not  commonplace. 

But  you  cannot  do  this,  you  cannot  begin  to  do  it,  with- 
out a  profound  and  constant  knowledge  of  spiritual  reality 
at  first  hand.  The  strong  tides  of  your  own  spiritual  life 
setting  steadily  in  a  given  direction  must  carry  you  and 
your  sermon  on  your  way  rejoicing  as  you  minister  effici- 
ently to  the  souls  of  those  men  who  are  of  necessity  steadily 
engaged  in  doing  these  humdrum,  commonplace  things. 

/  What  you  think  about  when  your  mind  is  free  to  do, 
not  what  it  must,  but  what  it  likes ;  what  your  heart  is,  in 
its  prevailing  moods  when  it  is  unleashed  to  go  where  it 
will ;  what  your  prevailing  temper  is  when  you  are  under 
no  sort  of  compulsion  laid  on  from  without,  this  will  de- 
termine what  you  will  be  able  to  accomplish  by  that  nat- 
ural flowering  forth  of  your  own  inner  being,  which  we 
call  preaching. 

Your  supreme  concern  then  in  the  pulpit  will  not  be 


240  THE  ART  OF  PREACHING 

your  sermon  but  the  souls  of  your  people.  You  will  not 
enter  your  pulpit  saying  to  yourself,  "Go  to,  now!  Let 
us  make  great  sermons."  You  will  reach  back  for  that 
primeval  intention,  that  universal  purpose  which  underlies 
all  our  ministry.  You  will  say,  "Let  us  make  men  in  His 
image,  after  His  likeness."  Then  in  that  high  mood  and 
by  the  strength  of  that  fundamental,  commanding  purpose 
you  will  enter  upon  the  high  level  of  direct  spiritual  im- 
partation  as  the  preacher  of  a  divine  Gospel. 

"He  shall  show  you  a  large  upper  room,  furnished,  there 
make  ready."  Here  is  a  divine  finger  pointing  straight 
toward  the  higher  levels  of  experience  which  are  impera- 
tively demanded  if  we  are  to  find  ourselves  fitted  for  those 
exacting  duties  just  ahead  of  us. 

"A  large  upper  room,  furnished — there  make  ready." 
It  is  a  room  away  from  the  noise  and  dust  of  the  busy 
street.  It  is  a  room  beyond  the  touch  and  defilement  of 
thoise  methods  which  are  of  the  earth,  earthy.  It  is  a 
room  lifted  above  the  adjacent  structures,  giving  it  a 
freer,  wider  outlook  upon  the  broad  areas  of  human  in- 
terest. It  is  a  room  fronting  squarely  on  the  blue  sky,  in- 
viting the  direct  rays  of  the  sun  and  opening  its  windows 
wide  to  all  the  forces  of  that  upper  air.  He  will  show 
you  this  as  the  crowning  opportunity  for  your  own  per- 
sonal preparation  as  preachers.  Enter  it  and  there  make 
ready  for  those  high  privileges  which  await  you. 

Have  you  been  reading,  I  wonder,  the  accounts  of  the 
heroic  achievement  of  some  of  the  younger  astronomers 
in  recent  years?  These  men  were  not  content  to  walk 
the  streets  and  look  up  at  the  stars  on  clear  nights  as  the 
rest  of  us  were  doing.     They  journeyed  to  those  regions 


THE  SOUL  OF  THE  SERMON  241 

"where  the  crust  of  Mother  Earth  has  been  thrust  high  into 
the  upper  air,  fourteen,  fifteen,  eighteen  thousand  feet 
above  sea  level.  They  climbed  high  up  on  Chimborazo  in 
South  America.  They  ascended  to  the  very  summit  of 
Mount  Blanc,  carrying  and  dragging  their  instruments 
with  them,  one  of  those  instruments  weighing  eleven  hun- 
dred pounds.  While  on  these  expeditions  they  slept  in 
thin  silk  tents  which  they  carried  along.  They  thawed  out 
•frozen  food  on  little  alcohol  stoves  until  it  was  soft  enough 
to  be  eaten.  They  endured  all  manner  of  exposure  and 
hardship  on  those  rugged  steeps  and  in  that  frigid  climate 
in  order  to  accomplish  the  high  ends  they  had  in  view. 

These  young  astronomers  made  these  heroic  and  perilous 
ascents  that  from  those  vantage  points  they  might  the 
better  scan  the  visible  heavens.  They  desired  to  map  out 
the  paths  the  wandering  planets  take.  They  undertook 
to  weigh  the  huge  bulk  of  those  distant  suns.  They  act- 
ually determined  by  their  spectrum  analysis  the  very  fuel 
those  distant  planets  burned.  And  they  were  able  to 
make  these  observations,  some  of  which  were  of  great 
value  to  science,  because  they  were  willing  to  pay  the 
price  of  ascent  into  those  upper  rooms. 

They  must  have  known  all  the  while  that  the  knowledge 
gained  and  the  very  objects  of  their  research  all  belong  to 
that  order  which  passeth  away.  "The  heavens  declare  the 
glory  of  God  and  the  firmament  showeth  His  handiwork," 
yet  only  for  a  few  brief  hours  in  cosmic  history.  The 
heavenly  bodies  are  all  awaiting  that  elemental  change 
to  which  they  are  destined. 

But  what  shall  we  say  of  the  high  privilege  and  ex- 
acting obligations  spread  out  before  us  as  the  intrepid 


242  THE  ART  OF  PREACHINa 

explorers  of  the  world  of  spiritual  realities  ?  It  lies  with- 
in the  power  of  every  man  of  us  to  go  aloft  into  that  upper 
world  where  with  the  eye  of  faith  we  may  see  the  eternal 
verities.  We  may  know  the  movements  of  the  Divine 
Spirit  in  His  stately  goings  from  one  end  of  the  heaven 
even  unto  the  other  end  thereof.  We  may  possess  and 
weigh  those  unseen  values  which  are  priceless.  We  may 
look  with  unveiled  face  upon  all  the  hues  and  tints  which 
burn  in  the  glories  of  that  upper  world  until  our  very 
souls  are  changed  into  the  same  image.  "He  shall  show 
you  a  large  upper  room,  furnished — there,  make  ready." 

There  are  men  of  quite  ordinary  gifts  who  become 
highly  effective  by  the  larger  measure  of  this  divine  ele- 
ment in  their  preaching.  This  fact  affords  us  immense 
encouragement.  In  the  matter  of  brains  and  ideas  we 
are  all  conscious  of  our  limitations — if  unhappily  we  are 
not  conscious  of  them  then  our  friends  become  all  the 
more  conscious  of  them  for  us — and  it  is  a  limitation 
which  cannot  be  entirely  remedied.  We  would  all  be 
glad  to  be  possessed  of  more  ease  of  manner,  of  more 
facility  of  expression,  of  more  grace  and  force  in  deliv- 
ery. We  can  do  something  by  way  of  improving  our 
original  stock  of  these  fine  qualities,  but  the  gifts  we  re- 
ceive at  birth,  when  "the  gates  of  the  gods,"  as  the  an- 
cients said,  "are  closed  on  each  man,"  decide  for  us,  in 
the  main,  the  measure  of  our  unaided  effectiveness. 

But  no  one  of  us  need  be  straitened  in  that  which  is 
vastly  more  important.  In  our  access  to  God  we  have  all 
the  privileges  ever  enjoyed  by  any  man.  You  will  be 
just  as  near  the  stars  in  some  modest  rural  parish  as  you 
would  be  if  you  were  standing  in  the  pulpit  of  some  Fifth 


THE  SOUL  OF  THE  SERMON  243 

Avenue  Church,  New  York,  or  in  City  Temple,  London. 
In  that  infilling  of  our  spiritual  receptacles  from  His  in- 
finite supply,  we  need  never  be  cramped.  The  gate  of 
the  living  God  remains  forever  open  in  this  matter  of 
spiritual  enduement.  We  can,  if  we  will,  grow  steadily 
and  endlessly  in  human  sympathy  and  in  spiritual  ex- 
perience— and  this  will  put  soul  into  our  preaching  be- 
yond any  other  line  of  effort  to  be  named. 

You  will  find  that  in  the  number  of  conversions  made, 
in  the  range  and  power  of  your  inspirational  appeal,  in 
the  measure  of  comfort  and  help  afforded  to  your  people, 
and  even  in  the  sheer  attractiveness  you  may  exhibit  as 
a  popular  preacher,  there  is  no  other  one  asset  which  will 
bear  comparison  for  a  moment  with  the  sense  of  this 
divine  element  operating  in  all  your  work. 

How  shall  this  quality  of  spiritual  effectiveness  be 
gained  and  kept?  I  wish  with  all  my  heart  that  in  def- 
inite terms  I  could  tell  you.  If  I  were  actually  able  to 
set  it  before  you  in  finished  phrase,  my  reputation  as  a 
theological  instructor  would  be  made  for  all  time.  If  I 
could  give  you  rules  on  which  you  could  rely  as  men  rely 
upon  chemical  formulas  when  they  are  at  work  in  the 
laboratory,  I  should  wake  iip  to-morrow  morning  and  find 
myself  famous. 

The  giving  or  the  withholding  of  divine  help  in  public 
address  involves  about  the  greatest  mystery  of  which  I 
know  anything  in  my  own  personal  experience.  I  have 
read  all  the  books  on  the  subject  which  I  could  conmiand. 
I  have  talked  repeatedly  with  many  wise,  experienced, 
and  efficient  ministers  of  Christ.  I  have  been  trying  all 
the  valid  methods  I  could  discover  on  myself  for  thirty 


244  THE  ART  OF  PREACHINa 

odd  years,  and  still  I  find  myself  baffled.  There  is  a  sense 
of  mystery  attaching  to  this  matter  of  spiritual  endue- 
ment,  which  I  am  unable  to  solve. 

If  your  experience  has  been  anything  like  mine,  you 
will  have  observed  this:  On  one  occasion  when  I  had 
made  careful,  thorough,  painstaking  preparation,  when  I 
had  been  living  conscientiously,  when  I  had  prayed  for 
the  effectiveness  of  that  sermon  with  unusual  fervor,  when 
I  had  a  theme  which  filled  my  heart  with  joy,  I  still  made 
a  failure !  The  message  I  brought  seemed  ineffective  and 
the  hearts  of  men  were  unmoved.  On  some  other  occasion 
when  I  was  not  nearly  so  well  prepared,  when  I  had  not 
behaved  myself  the  week  before  in  all  respects  as  a  Chris- 
tian minister  should,  when  there  had  been  a  lack  of  prayer, 
and  no  such  measure  of  deep  feeling,  I  spoke  with  great 
personal  liberty  and  (according  to  the  grateful  testimony 
of  those  who  heard)  with  genuine  spiritual  effectiveness. 
In  the  one  case  I  was  becalmed  and  the  whole  sermon  was 
dull,  lifeless,  dead.  In  the  other  case  there  came  a  breeze 
from  Heaven  which  swept  me  along  grandly  and  brought 
the  whole  congregation  toward  the  desired  haven. 

It  seems  as  uncertain  as  the  wind.  And  this  was  the 
very  illustration  which  Jesus  used.  He  said  to  !Nicodemus 
that  unless  a  man  was  born  anew,  born  from  above,  born 
from  within,  he  could  not  enter  the  Kingdom  of  God. 
iNicodemus  was  amazed  by  this  statement.  It  staggered 
him.  "How  can  these  things  be  ?"  he  exclaimed !  "How 
can  a  man  be  born  when  he  is  old  ?"  Just  then  the  wind 
rustled  the  leaves  where  the  two  men  stood;  and  Jesus 
said,  "The  wind  bloweth  where  it  listeth.  Thou  hearest 
the  sound  thereof,  but  thou  canst  not  tell  whence  it  cometh 


THE  SOUL  OF  THE  SERMON  245 

or  whither  it  goeth.  So  is  every  one  that  is  born  of  the 
Spirit." 

We  cannot  tell  how  it  is  that  the  wind  blows  one  day 
from  the  north  and  we  have  cold,  and  another  day  from 
the  south  and  we  have  heat,  and  another  day  from  the 
east  and  we  have  rain.  We  know  the  fact  but  we  cannot 
explain  the  method.  We  cannot  tell  how  the  wind  fits  in 
with  all  the  other  forces  and  movements  of  this  universe. 
And  the  same  vast  sense  of  mystery  inheres  in  the  action 
and  movement  of  the  Divine  Spirit.  "Religion  is  itself  an 
invisible  and  intangible  object  best  discovered  as  the  wind 
and  the  Spirit  generally  are  discovered,  in  what  they 
move." 

The  utilization  of  divine  help  in  preaching  has  not  been 
reduced  to  anything  like  an  exact  science.  We  are  dealing 
with  realities  too  vast  for  complete  formulation.  Both 
our  words  and  our  methods  are  "thrown  out,"  as  it  were, 
at  these  immensities  which  elude  final,  exhaustive  state- 
ment or  treatment. 

Here,  however,  is  the  best  that  I  have  found  in  this 
matter.  You  can  keep  your  hearts  pure  and  your  souls 
responsive  by  living  true,  kind,  devout  lives.  You  can 
avoid  those  tempers  and  dispositions  which  harden  and 
stiffen  men,  making  them  unresponsive  to  the  Divine 
Spirit.  You  can  keep  your  own  inner  life  as  delicately 
sensitive  as  the  flesh  of  a  child,  so  that  you  will  feel  the 
softest  breezes  of  Heaven  when  they  blow  your  way. 

You  can  pray  until  the  veil  which  separates  you  from 
the  world  of  spiritual  reality  becomes  thin.  Your  own 
devotions  may  be  so  genuine  that  there  will  be  no  sense 
of  a  dull,  heavy  barrier  between  you  and  the  Most  High, 


246  THE  ART  OF  PREACHING 

You  will  feel  the  direct  impact  of  that  unseen  world  upon 
your  own  heart.  You  cannot  achieve  this  result  by  an 
occasional  spasmodic  fit  of  earnestness  or  by  the  special 
prayer  you  offer  in  hurried  preparation  for  some  critical 
occasion.     You  can  only  achieve  it  by  a  life  of  prayer. 

You  can  practice  meditation  upon  high  themes.  "While 
I  was  musing,  the  fire  burned."  The  direct  relation  of 
mental  reflection  to  moral  enthusiasm  is  well  understood 
by  competent  psychologists.  It  was  well  understood  by 
the  psalmist  of  old.  It  is  well  understood  by  all  success- 
ful teachers. 

It  was  Madame  Montessori  who  said  "Meditation  means 
something  growing  within.  Take  the  difference  between 
reading  and  meditating !  We  may  read  a  popular  novel  in 
a  single  night.  We  may  meditate  upon  a  single  verse  of 
Scripture  for  an  entire  hour.  When  we  read  the  novel  in 
a  night,  it  is  like  a  wind  that  passes  over  arid  ground. 
There  is  a  squandering  of  the  physical  powers.  But  the 
one  who  meditates,  assimilates  in  a  manner  that  surprises 
himself,  because  he  feels  something  unforeseen  coming 
to  life  within  him."  When  you  take  your  theme  apart  and 
meditate  upon  it,  there  will  be  developed  within  your 
very  soul  that  eagerness  to  impart  the  best  that  it  holds 
to  those  hearts  which  are  awaiting  the  renewal  it  has 
power  to  bring.  This  exercise  wisely  and  steadily  fol- 
lowed up  will  multiply  your  power  by  ten. 

You  can  count  yourselves  always  the  servants  of  the 
Word  of  God,  the  active,  efficient  agents  of  that  unseen 
form  of  power.  The  preachers  in  the  Book  of  Acts  said 
that  it  was  not  fit  that  they  should  "leave  the  ministry 
of  the  Word  to  serve  tables."    They  were  waiting  upon 


THE  SOUL  OF  THE  SERMON  247 

that  energy  and  presence  which  they  called  '^the  Word 
of  God,"  and  they  could  not  bear  the  thought  of  having 
their  interests  diverted  even  to  the  practical,  useful  tasks 
involved  in  ministering  to  physical  need. 

"The  Word  of  God,"  as  the  expression  is  here  used, 
does  not  refer  to  a  book  nor  to  any  set  of  printed  state- 
ments. It  indicates  a  form  of  living  energy  passing  from 
God  to  man.  It  is  quick,  powerful,  sharp — sharper  than 
a  two-edged  sword.  You  are  set  to  serve  that.  In  your 
study  and  in  your  pulpit  you  are  to  do  the  bidding  and 
to  cooperate  with  the  purpose  of  that  living  energy  which 
is  here  called  "the  Word  of  God." 

**Beyond  the  saered  page 
I  seek  Thee,  Lord ! 
My  spirit  pants  for  Thee, 
0  living  word." 

Here  are  two  musicians !  One  of  them  sits  down  before 
a  great  pipe  organ  to  render  some  noble  composition.  He 
reads  his  score  correctly.  He  has  perfect  control  of  his 
fingers  trained  to  obedience  by  consistent  practice.  He 
puts  down  the  right  keys  at  the  right  moment  and  keeps 
them  down  just  long  enough.  He  moves  his  feet  with 
perfect  accuracy  as  they  touch  the  keys  of  the  pedal  organ. 
He  draws  his  stops  with  precision,  arranging  and  employ- 
ing those  particular  combinations  which  are  indicated  in 
the  work  he  would  render. 

The  other  musician  does  exactly  the  same  thing.  But 
in  addition  there  is  expressed  in  his  playing  deep,  rich, 
genuine  feeling.     He  enters  profoundly  and  sympathet- 


248  THE  ART  OF  PREACHING 

ically  into  the  mood  of  the  composer  whose  work  he  in- 
terprets. He  utters  that  high  mood  by  the  use  of  his 
fingers  and  his  feet  through  the  wide  variety  of  pipes 
included  in  that  splendid  church  organ.  His  playing  is 
such  that  all  aside  from  the  impartation  made  by  the  bel- 
lows of  the  organ,  the  player  himself  breathes  into  that 
instrument  the  breath  of  life,  and  brings  us  not  merely 
the  body  of  the  music  but  its  inmost  soul. 

You  will  seek  to  make  the  subject  matter  of  your  preach- 
ing as  strong  and  as  well-reasoned  as  it  lies  within  your 
power  to  make  it.  You  will  strive  steadily  to  improve 
and  perfect  your  literary  style  until  the  expression  of 
your  truth  is  the  best  that  you  can  furnish.  You  will 
study  the  methods  of  delivery  until  voice  and  face  and 
hand  shall  all  agree  in  giving  the  finest  possible  interpre- 
tation to  your  thought  as  you  declare  it  from  your  pulpit. 
But  behind,  and  beneath,  and  above  all  else,  you  must 
strive  for  that  certain  mystic  element  which  comes  by 
the  divine  enduement,  bestowing  upon  your  performance 
the  high  and  permanent  quality  of  spiritual  effectiveness. 
O  The  worl<l  Lis  iiot  heard  its  best  prciiching  je\.  In 
preaching  as  in  living,  because  preaching  at  its  best  is 
the  interpretation  of  living  and  the  incentive  to  nobler 
and  fuller  living — in  preaching  as  in  living, 

^^The  best  is  yet  to  be 
The  last  of  life  for  which  the  first  was  made.'' 

The  better  method  of  Bible  study  showing  us  how  these 
great  truths  were  slowly  and  progressively  wrought  into 
the  experiences  of  men  of  like  passions  with  us,  makes 


THE  SOUL  OF  THE  SERMON  249 

the  word  of  God  "living,  powerful,  sharper  than  a  two- 
edged  sword"  in  a  sense  not  understood  by  the  men  who 
thought  of  this  literature  as  having  been  dictated  to  "the 
sacred  penmen  of  the  Holy  Ghost."  The  finer  and  more 
accurate  psychology  of  these  days,  bringing  out  the  real 
content  of  religious  experience,  is  putting  into  our  hands 
a  blade  of  Damascus  steel  with  which  we  are  to  fight  the 
battles  of  the  Lord.  It  is  giving  us  in  larger  and  larger 
measure  the  choicest  and  most  delicate  instruments  ever 
possessed  by  men  for  the  rare  work  of  Christian  nurture. 
The  deeper  insight  into  the  real  meaning  of  these  social 
impulses  and  of  the  prophetic  unrest  in  the  whole  organ- 
ized life  of  the  race,  is  causing  that  great  word  "The 
Tabernacle  of  God  is  with  men  and  He  will  dwell  with 
them"  to  shine  like  the  sun  in  his  strength  ushering  in  a 
veritable  day  of  the  Lord.  We  are  witnessing  the  signifi- 
cant beginnings  of  what  shall  become  at  last  "the  social 
incarnation  of  God."  And  it  is  for  you,  who  stand  here 
on  the  shoulders  of  all  your  able  and  godly  predecessors 
in  the  work  of  the  Christian  ministry,  to  gather  up  this 
richer  knowledge  and  then  with  minds  illumined  and 
wills  empowered  by  the  baptism  of  the  Holy  Spirit,  to 
use  it  for  the  renewal  of  the  race  in  righteousness. 

The  God  we  serve  is  "the  living  God,"  the  militant, 
striving,  achieving  God.  The  Father  worketh  even  until 
now  and  will  forever  work.  The  whole  wide  world  of 
thought,  feeling,  aspiration,  and  spiritual  achievement 
is  an  unfinished  universe  awaiting  His  action  and  ours. 
The  voice  of  God  who  is  forever  making  all  things  new 
is  calling  to  us  at  this  moment  summoning  us  to  join  Him 
in  an  enterprise  infinite  and  unending. 


250  THE  ART  OF  PEEACHING 

"Come  now  let  us  reason  together,  saith  tlie  Lord." 
Come  now  let  us  build  together  a  new  heaven  and  a  new 
earth  wherein  dwelleth  righteousness!  Come  now  let  us 
make  men  after  the  likeness  and  image  of  the  Eternal! 
.This  is  the  word  of  God  which  is  nigh  thee,  even  in  thy 
mouth  and  in  thy  heart.  And  in  this  vast  work  of  creative 
evolution,  under  the  Great  Taskmaster's  eye  and  in  open 
alliance  with  His  full  strength,  the  mind,  the  heart  and 
the  will  of  man  in  that  high  exercise  known  as  preaching 
are  to  bear  an  honorable  and  an  indispensable  part. 


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